The dominant view on firms’ financial leverage suggests a stable, long-term leverage ratio, while previous studies recognise that factors like macroeconomic fluctuations and unanticipated financing needs can cause deviations from this target leverage. This study seeks to explore the joint...

China is now facing the challenges of high leverage. Our study has examined the role of firms’ rising debt in explaining the decrease in labor share in recent years. We developed a model to show that firms may strategically use debt to increase their bargaining power, resulting in lower labor...