Investigating the effect of accounting information complexity on the speed of adjusting the optimal capital structure in Listed Companies in Tehran Stock Exchange

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the complexity of accounting information on the speed of adjustment of the optimal capital structure in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In this study, the complexity of accounting information was selected as an independent variable and two criteria of "consolidated financial statements and a variety of products or services" were used to measure it. Also, the rate of adjustment of the optimal capital structure was selected as a dependent variable and the Partial Adjustment Model by Flannery and Rangan (2006) was used to estimate it. The statistical population of this study was all companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange and the statistical sample of the study included 119 companies active in various industries during the years 2012 to 2019. The research method was correlational and to test the hypotheses, the ordinary least squares regression method and panel data and Stata14 software were used. The results indicate that the complexity of accounting information has a negative and significant effect on the speed of adjustment of the optimal capital structure in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In interpreting this result, it can be said that increasing the ambiguity and complexity of accounting information in financial statements will reduce the speed of adjusting the movement of companies towards the optimal capital structure.