The Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from the Asia Pacific Region *

The paper contributes to the capital structure literature by investigating the determinants of capital structure of firms operating in the Asia Pacific region, in four countries with different legal, financial and institutional environments, namely Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. The results suggest that the capital structure decision of firms is influenced by the environment in which they operate, as well as firm-specific factors identified in the extant literature. The financial crisis of 1997 is also found to have had a significant but diverse impact on firm’s capital structure decision across the region.