Determinantes do capital de terceiros na estrutura de financiamento: uma análise comparativa de empresas de capital aberto do setor de manufatura no Brasil e Estados Unidos

Abstract

The present dissertation aims to verify the determinants of the capital structure of public companies in the manufacturing sector for Brazil and the United States from 2008 to 2016, based on Trade-Off and Pecking Order theories. Accompanyingly, to explain the performance of the variables in light of the macroeconomic phenomena for Brazil and also the behavior of determinants by segment of corporate governance. The method has a descriptive and quantitative character, developed through statistical analysis of financial data extracted from the Economática® software database referring to the Balance Sheet of 58 Brazilian companies and 254 US companies in the publicly traded manufacturing sector. The theoretical models are tested using the panel data method, which joins cross-sections with time series. For the results, it was identified that the variable "short-term debt" presented an increasing average in the period, an antagonistic movement to that perceived for US companies. As for "long-term debt", the average performance presented a certain similarity to the two countries. The US companies presented a higher "profitability" average throughout the period, while in the Brazilian case the variable behaved with a decreasing trend, due to the intense internal and external competitiveness with the Chinese manufacturing domain. On average, the "size" of US companies was higher, underscoring the disparity between economies, taking as a parameter the superiority of the financial market. The "opportunity for growth", despite the increase observed in the post-crisis period, showed often times negative results for Brazil. As for "tangibility", the average of national companies was higher. For the "risk" variable, though, the Brazilian companies presented a worsening of the picture, which reflects the scenario of growing economic uncertainty and reduction of ratings by rating agencies. The discriminant analysis pointed out that companies in the differentiated segment of corporate governance perform better than those in the traditional segment. It was concluded that the theoretical model of Trade-Off corresponded better than the Pecking Order for both countries, indicating that the companies surveyed prefer to opt for a debt target to following a hierarchical process of debt financing.