Capital structure of firms in Turkey: Determinants and evolution

In the light of many researches done in the literature, this study aims to put forth the factors affecting capital structure of firms operating in the Turkish publicly-traded manufacturing industry and behaviors regarding those firms? decisions about their capital structures.This study is comprised of three parts: In the first part, the concept and components of capital structure are discussed. Secondly, the work examines capital structure theories and factors affecting capital structure, which are exposed extensively in the literature, in detail. In the third part, the relationships between tangibility, firm size, non-debt tax shields, profitability, and the growth opportunities of those firms and capital structures are analyzed with statistical methods.Among factors affecting the capital structure of firms, the study reveals that there are statistically significant relationships between capital structure, tangibility, profitability; and growth opportunities, while asserting that strong but only economically-meaningful relationships with regard to firm size and non-debt tax shield seem to exist.