Capital structure choice in European Union: evidence from the construction industry1

In this article, we examine the determinants of the capital structure of large listed European construction firms from 1996 to 2004. We investigate if there are solid and mutual factors that can characterize the capital structure of large construction firms. We identify nine factors–validated by many theories from the literature of finance–that give reasonable results. The existence of such factors provides strong evidence that the European Union converges, despite the different particular country characteristics, the corporate financial decisions of large listed firms in the construction industry.