In God We Trust: Religiosity, Religions, and Capital Structure Choice

Abstract

The empirical impact of religiosity on leverage is unclear. I provide causal evidence that this unclarity is due to lack of control for the concentration of religions with different views on the usage of corporate debt in previous studies. Utilizing a worldwide sample, I identify and verify the causal relationship using earthquake events that and its descriptive parameters as instruments for the endogenous religious variables. I find that the concentration of religions is able to completely reverse the positive impact of religiosity on leverage when the concentration of religions is greater than or equal to 50%.

Keywords: Capital structure, Religion, Religious concentration

JEL Classification: G32, Z12