Dynamic Panel Data Analysis of Capital Structure Determinants: Evidence from Iraqi Banks

This study investigates if the choice of capital structure of Iraqi banks could be interpreting through factors which have been studied by prior studies, which represented by determinants of capital structure choice (i.e., bank size, bank profitability, bank growth, tangibility, bank age). Using dynamic panel GMM for the period 2005 to 2019, this study maintains the explore on the determinants of capital structure of Iraq banks "developing country" that has circumstances likely to be quite different from those in developed and other major developing countries, particularly in terms of it deteriorating economic environment. The findings indicate that the bank size, bank profitability, bank age have a dominant role in explaining the variation in the long-term debt ratios of Iraqi banks. Meanwhile, only bank size, bank profitability, bank growth, bank age has a leading role in interpreting the variation of short-term debt ratios in the Iraqi banks. The current study has initiated some basis to discover the capital structure determinants of Iraqi banks upon which a more detailed evaluation could be based. Moreover, the experimental results can help Iraqi banks directors to choose the optimum structure of capital.