Capital structure and financial policies can raise anticompetitive concerns to the extent that they induce rival firms to compete less aggressively. In contrast to common ownership, anticompetitive concerns triggered by financial leverage being ratcheted up in parallel across rival firms can be...

We investigate the relationship between profitability and financial leverage for US listed non-financial corporations by taking into account the degree of product similarity among competing firms, which can drive intense pricing rivalry thus undermining the sustainability of high price-cost...