The relationship between the level of debt specialization and financial constraint of Brazilian firms over the time

ABSTRACT This article sought to analyze the historical evolution, the composition, and the determinants of debt specialization of Brazilian firms traded on Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão (B3) from 2004 to 2019 in aggregate terms and in accordance with their financial constraints. This paper differs from the few studies on this topic carried out in Brazil and in other countries by promoting a discussion on the specialization of the debt structure in a context of financial constraints, as they are a relevant idiosyncrasy of emerging markets, such as in Brazil. The relevance of the study is to identify that debt specialization is a feature of only of financially constrained firms and not of the financially unconstrained ones. The impact of the study lies in a better understanding of why Brazilian firms are reducing their debt specialization, unlike other international evidences, such as the U.S. Descriptive statistics and regressions were estimated using the probit and tobit methods for 246 Brazilian firms between 2004 and 2019. The main result is that financial constrained firms are more likely to specialize their debt structure. Despite this propensity, these companies were the ones that most decreased their debt specialization between 2004 and 2019 (-27.77%), compared to the general sample (-27.5%) and unconstrained firms (-19.48%), revealing a behavior contrary to the U.S. scenario in which companies are increasingly specialists.

摘要
本文旨在分析2004年至2019年间，于巴西证券交易所（Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão，以下简称B3）上市的巴西企业债务专业化的历史演进、构成及其决定因素，分析维度涵盖整体样本与按融资约束（financial constraints）分组的情况。
相较于巴西及其他国家针对该主题开展的少量现有研究，本文的创新之处在于结合融资约束背景探讨债务结构专业化问题——融资约束是巴西等新兴市场的重要特质性特征。
本研究的学术价值在于证实：债务专业化仅为存在融资约束的企业的特征，而非无融资约束企业的共性。
本研究的贡献在于能够更好地解释为何巴西企业的债务专业化水平呈下降趋势，这与美国等其他经济体的国际经验相悖。
本文以2004年至2019年间的246家巴西企业为研究样本，通过描述性统计与概率单位模型（probit）、托宾回归模型（tobit）两种方法开展回归分析。
核心研究结果表明：存在融资约束的企业更倾向于构建专业化的债务结构。尽管存在这一倾向，但2004年至2019年间，此类企业的债务专业化水平降幅最大，较整体样本（下降27.5%）与无融资约束企业（下降19.48%）分别多降0.27和8.29个百分点（实际降幅依次为-27.77%、-27.5%、-19.48%），其行为特征与美国企业债务专业化水平持续提升的场景形成鲜明反差。