Corporate governance, capital structure, and firm performance: a panel VAR approach

This study aims to examine the interrelationships and interdependencies between corporate governance (CG), capital structure (CS), and firm performance (FP) of companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius from 2009 to 2019 along with a comparison between financial and non-financial firms. A panel vector autoregression (PVAR) approach is used in this study to determine the relationship dynamics between CG, CS and FP. The findings reveal a positive and significant bidirectional association between CS and FP, supporting the trade-off theory. The results also show that CG and FP jointly help to increase CS while CG and CS jointly boost the profitability of firms. A strong bidirectional relationship with varied signs between CG and CS is found only for financial firms. The results of the forecast error variance decomposition analysis support the selection of FP as the most endogenous variable. Robustness tests also support the findings. This study is the first to examine the dynamic and interdependent relationships using a PVAR model between CG, CS and FP that presents new contributions to the existing CG and CS literature with insights from an emerging economy.