Corporate Capital Structure Determinants of Listed Firms in West African Monetary Zone – A Review of Related Literature

Abstract

In the financial management arena, corporate capital structure has attracted intense debate and scholarly attention over the past four decades. However, in the context of countries in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), capital structure has received a scanty attention and most literature on this issue modelled only the firm specific determinants in their studies. Practically, managers also like to consider market conditions, like GDP growth, interest rate, inflation, stock market performance and other economic factors when deciding for financing mix (Antoniou et al, 2002). This paper provides new insights into the capital structure theory by proposing a more superior model which takes into account both the additional important and “lately” evidence firm specific factors and macroeconomic factors on capital structure as opposed to the existing models for capital structure.  Both theoretical and empirical literature is reviewed. Conclusions are drawn based on the findings.

Keywords: key words, capital structure, determinants, related literature, Ghana, Nigeria, WAMZ