Sermaye yapısı belirleyicisi olarak duyarlılık: Borsa İstanbul örneği

One of the main aims of the firms is to maximize shareholders' wealth. In this regard capital structure decisions of firms play an important role.On thecontext of finance literature, firm-specific factors affecting capital structure decisions are stated as firm size, profitability, tangibility of firm assets, liquidity, growth opportunities, tax shield and non-debt tax shield; while macroeconomic factors are stated as inflation, gross domestic product and financial market development level. Behavioral Finance argues that biases influence individuals in theirdecisions. Managers as individuals are also influenced by biases while they are making decisions about their firms. In line with this argument, the capital structure decisions are expected to be influenced by managerial sentiment as well as investor sentiment, which represent expectations and perceptions of investors and managers about the general economic situation. This study aims to test whether investor and managerial sentiment affect capital structure decisions of firms listed on Borsa Istanbul for the period 2010 to 2017. In this respect, data on 169 firms traded on Borsa Istanbulhave beencollected to analyze whether the investor and managerial sentiment affect firms' indebtedness levels by using Generalized Least Squares Method. Theempirical findings exhibit a statistically significant negative relationship between both investor and managerial sentiment and capital structure. This implies that as managers and investors become more optimistic, the leverage levels fall. That is managers prefer raising capital through equity financing. Keywords: Capital Structure, Investor Sentiment, Managerial Sentiment