Resumen
AbstractThis paper examines the impact of profitability on the financial leverage of firms operating in an unstable macroeconomic environment such as Nigeria. Using fixed and dynamic panel models, it finds consistent evidence that the profitability of a firm significantly and negatively affects its short-term debt, but not its long-term debt capital. It attributes this to the unstable nature of the Nigerian business environment and the relative inefficiency of its financial markets. It signals that Nigerian firms could be over-relying on short-term debt and external equity to fund long-term investments ? a trend that is capable of increasing cost of capital to a level above any plausible limit.