The indebtedness of the Brazilian States: Verifying your Situation Using Multivariate Analysis of Data

Abstract

     The determination of a company's capital structure constitutes a difficult decision, one that involves several and antagonistic factors, such as risk and profitability. That decision becomes even more difficult, in times when the economic environment in which the company operates presents a high degree of instability. Therefore, the choice among the ideal proportion of debt and equity can affect the value of the company, as much as the return rates. In the present study, the authors tried to examine the influence of the capital structure of Brazilian companies regarding the factor profitability. The data used in this research corresponds to the financial statements of 70 companies collected in the past seven years. There is, the historical series covers the period immediately after the implantation of Plano Real, with its consequences in terms of reduction of inflation rates, increase of interest rates, and instability of the exchange rate politics. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method was employed in the estimation of a function relating the return on the equity (ROE) with the indexes of long and short-run debts, and also with the total of owner's equity. The results indicate that the return rates present a positive correlation with shortterm debt and equity, and an inverse correlation with long-term debt.