Stock price crash risk and leverage dynamics: Evidence from the GCC countries

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of stock price crash risk on capital structure dynamics using a sample of firms located in the GCC region. The results show that a higher exposure to stock price crash risk is associated with a lower speed of leverage adjustments toward target. We also find that this relation is more pronounced for over-levered firms compared to their under-levered peers. Our results withstand several sensitivity tests including, using alternative proxies for main dependent and independent variables, and ruling out endogeneity concerns, among other.