@article{discovery17751, note = {{\copyright} 2004 The MIT Press}, volume = {2}, title = {Technology and financial structure: are innovative firms different?}, pages = {277--288}, journal = {Journal of the European Economic Association}, year = {2004}, month = {April}, number = {2-3}, keywords = {Finance, financing, firm, R\&D, shares, technology}, abstract = {We use data on publicly traded U.K. firms to investigate whether financing choices differ systematically with R\&D intensity. As well as looking at a balance sheet measure of the debt/assets ratio, we also consider the probability of raising finance by issuing new equity, and the shares of bank debt and secured debt in total debt. We find a nonlinear relationship with the debt/assets ratio: firms that report positive but low R\&D use more debt finance than firms that report no R\&D, but the use of debt finance falls with R\&D intensity among those firms that report R\&D. We find a simpler relationship with the probability of issuing new equity: Firms that report R\&D are more likely to raise funds by issuing shares than firms that report no R\&D, and this probability increases with R\&D intensity. The shares of bank debt and secured debt in total debt are both lower for firms that report R\&D compared to those that do not, and tend to fall as R\&D intensity rises. We discuss possible explanations for these patterns.}, author = {Aghion, P. and Bond, S. and Klemm, A. and Marinescu, I.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/154247604323067989}, issn = {1542-4766} }