HOW DO SELECTED DETERMINANTS AFFECT FINANCIAL STRUCTURE IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN SELECTED COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

The topic of financial or capital structure is one of the very important components of corporate finance, as a wrong adjustment of the ratio of own and external sources of financing can lead a company to bankruptcy. This research expands knowledge in the field of manufacturing industry for eight selected economies of Central and Eastern Europe during the years 2009–2018. A total of 92,504 companies are examined. In addition, companies are divided according to size into medium and large. The aim of the research is to find out whether profitability, liquidity, asset structure, non-debt tax shield, GDP, interest rate has an effect on the amount of total, long-term and short-term debt. The dependencies are investigated by panel regression using the Generalized Method of Moments. Unfortunately, due to the large set of data and variables examined, it is impossible to summarize the results for each economy, but it is concluded that external factors have the greatest impact on the indebtedness level of manufacturing companies. Specifically, the development of the economy and the interest rate.