ON THE RELEVANCE OF OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE IN DETERMINING THE MATURITY OF DEBT

I show that ownership by blockholding and board composition is an important determinant ofcorporate debt maturity structure. Using GMM methodology to control for the potential endogeneityof all regressors, I find a statistically and economically significant negative relation between shorttermdebt and both blockholding and board structure, irrespective of the identity of shareholders.Robustness tests provide support for the hypothesis that less diversified shareholders tend to tradeoff underinvestment against the liquidity risk entailed in shorter maturities....