Influye la rentabilidad en el nivel de endeudamiento?: un análisis a nivel de empresa para el Ecuador

Abstract

This article aims to determine if profitability influences the level of indebtedness. The study carries out a company level analysis, specifically of Ecuadorian companies in a period of time between 2014 and 2019, for a total of 37,792 firms. Several econometric models are proposed on the relationship between debt and profitability and a set of determinant control variables that determine the dependent variable are also included, using an unbalanced data panel with data obtained from the financial statements by branches of the Companies Superintendency, Securities and Insurance which groups information about the accounts and concepts of the annual declarations of form 101 of Income Tax - Corporations, provided by the SRI. A set of 5 main estimates is estimated, those estimates differ from each other mainly due to the concept of debt and profitability that is used in each of them, the latter expressed as ROE, ROA and Net Income. The applied methodology is GMM through a system of equations that incorporates the variables in levels and differences as instruments, where, according to the results, for Ecuadorian companies a direct and significant relationship between profitability and indebtedness is obtained following the line of the Static Equilibrium theory, as well as other important results, among which it is highlighted that large companies present higher levels of debt in relation to small ones and that companies dedicated to branches of activity that do not need a large amount of assets such as professional activities are the ones with lower levels of indebtedness.