Background: The trade-off theory of capital structure is the idea that a company chooses how much debt finance and how much equity finance to use by balancing the costs and benefits. The classical version of the hypothesis goes back to Kraus and Litzenberger[1] who considered a balance between the dead-weight costs of bankruptcy and the tax saving benefits of debt. Often agency costs are also included in the balance. This theory is often set up as a competitor theory to the pecking order theory of capital structure. A review of the literature is provided by Frank and Goyal.[2]

An important purpose of the theory is to explain the fact that corporations usually are financed partly with debt and partly with equity. It states that there is an advantage to financing with debt, the tax benefits of debt and there is a cost of financing with debt, the costs of financial distress including bankruptcy costs of debt and non-bankruptcy costs (e.g. staff leaving, suppliers demanding disadvantageous payment terms, bondholder/stockholder infighting, etc.). The marginal benefit of further increases in debt declines as debt increases, while the marginal cost increases, so that a firm that is optimizing its overall value will focus on this trade-off when choosing how much debt and equity to use for financing.

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: Which company would most likely have to consider bankruptcy costs, company A or company B?
Answer: company A

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: Which company would most likely not have to consider bankruptcy costs, company A or company B?
Answer: company B

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: Would company A consider or ignore backruptcy costs?
Answer: consider

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: Would company B consider or ignore backruptcy costs?
Answer: ignore

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: Which company would most likely enjoy tax benefits of debt, company A or company B?
Answer: company A

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: Which company would most likely not have tax benefits of debt, company A or company B?
Answer: company B

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: Would company A have or not have tax benefits of debt?
Answer: have

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: Would company B have or not have tax benefits of debt?
Answer: not have

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: For which company marginal benefit of increased debt is an issue?
Answer: company A

Situation: Bob is a financial analyst. He used to work for company A. Bob noticed that company A is mostly financed by debt. Recently, he changed job and now working as a financial analyst for another company, company B. Company B has completely different culture than company A. Company B is mostly financed by equity.

Question: For Which company marginal benefit of increased debt is not an issue?
Answer: Company B