Capital Structure and Export Intensity: Static and Dynamic Panel Evidence from Turkish Manufacturing
Abstract
This study analyses the relationship between capital structure and export intensity using a firm-year panel drawn from the Istanbul Chamber of Industry’s Top 500 Industrial Enterprises (ISO 500) surveys for 2009-2025. After name normalisation and brand-guarded fuzzy matching, the regression sample contains 3,689 observations on 750 firms, with capital structure measured by the total leverage ratio. Static two-way fixed-effects estimates yield a leverage coefficient indistinguishable from zero (-0.001; p=0.97). By contrast, a two-step Blundell-Bond system GMM estimator accounting for the persistence of export intensity and the endogeneity of leverage estimates the leverage coefficient at 0.128 (p=0.028). This positive coefficient is not robust: it becomes insignificant when zero-imputed export observations are excluded, and fractional response estimates reproduce the persistence but not the leverage effect. Foreign capital share is positive in pooled estimates but insignificant under firm fixed effects. The dynamic results are consistent with debt capacity supporting export intensity among Türkiye’s largest industrial firms, but do not establish such an effect.
Keywords
References
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Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
International Economics (Other)
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Nihat Dağıstan
*
0000-0001-9086-4942
Türkiye
Publication Date
September 30, 2026
Submission Date
July 28, 2026
Acceptance Date
September 23, 2026
Published in Issue
Year 2026 Volume: 11 Number: 3