A Dynamic Model of Optimal Capital Structure

This paper presents a continuous time model of a firm that candynamically adjust both its capital structure and its investmentchoices. In the model we endogenize the investment choice aswell as firm value, which are both determined by an exogenousprice process that describes the firm's product market. Withinthe context of this model we explore cross-sectional as wellas time-series variation in debt ratios. We pay particular attentionto interactions between financial distress costs and debtholder/equityholderagency problems and examine how the ability to dynamically adjustthe debt ratio affects the deviation of actual debt ratios fromtheir targets. Regressions estimated on simulated data generatedby our model are roughly consistent with actual regressionsestimated in the empirical literature.