The role of secured debt in resolving agency conflicts and problems of asymmetric information: Indian evidence

The determinants of corporate indebtedness have been one of the most debated issues in empirical corporate finance research. In the Indian context, a number of research papers focusing on the said issue emerged since the 1990s. These research studies classified borrowing (the explained variable) based on the time perspective, namely, long-term and short-term. While this temporal categorization of borrowed capital remains important in analyzing capital structure choice, an alternative categorization based on whether borrowing is collateralized (secured) or not, has remained off focus. Consequently, the role of secured debt in addressing agency issues and problems of asymmetric information has remained largely unexplored. This exploratory research paper aims at addressing this issue, using a sample of manufacturing firms listed in the BSE 500 and SNP CNX 500 index.