Firm Attributes and Government External Debt as Determinants of Corporate Short Debt Maturity in a Post-CPEC Scenario

The current study investigates the influence of firm attributes and government external debt upon the short debt maturity of non-financial firms listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) in a post-CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) scenario. By using firm-level panel data, estimations are made through the random effect model with robust standard errors at the level and with lagged independent variables. We dealt endogeneity concerns by employing the system-GMM approach to the complete data sample of 331 firms over a period ranging from 2013 to 2017 and also the post CPEC period ranging from 2015 to 2017. The risk and asset tangibility are strong negative predictors of short debt maturity in Pakistani listed firms. The external debt had a positive and significant role in defining short debt maturity. These results were consistent for both the entire data period and the post CPEC period.