Corporate Governance and Financing Dicisions of Listed Firms in Pakistan

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore the link between corporate governance mechanisms and firms financing decisions. We have selected 24 banks which were listed on the “Karachi Stock Exchange”, during the period of 2008-2012. The Ownership Concentration, composition and size of the board, and role duality were considered as independent corporate governance variables while firm specific control variables were size, liquidity, profitability and tangibility of assets. Debt ratio is taken as a dependent variable representing firm’s financing decision (capital structure). The results indicate that Ownership Concentration, Size of the board, and leverage are positively correlated. However no significant relationship was found between Board composition, CEO duality and capital structure. We use panal least square regression to determine the affect of corporate governance and firm level characteristics on capital structure.

Keywords: Banking Sector, Capital Structure, Corporate Governance