Pecking-Order View (redirected from Pecking-order)

Pecking-order view (of capital structure)

The argument that external financing transactions costs, especially those associated with the problem of adverse selection, create a dynamic environment in which firms have a preference, or pecking-order of preferred sources of financing, when all else is equal. Internally generated funds are the most preferred, followed by new debt, and debt-equity hybrids. Finally, new equity is at the least preferred source.

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Pecking-Order View

A theory stating that, all other things being equal, companies seeking to finance a new project or product have a hierarchy of preferred financing options that progresses from the most preferred to the least preferred. The hierarchy is said to follow this order: internal funding (or simply financing a project or product out-of-pocket), debt issuance, debt-equity hybrid issuance, and equity issuance. The pecking-order view states that the hierarchy is structured this way because of the transaction costs involved in each form of financing. That is, internal funding has a lower transaction cost that debt issuance, and so forth.