Alternative approaches for econometric modeling of panel data using mixture distributions

Journal of Statistical Distributions and Applications

Table 1 Variables definitions

Variables	Definitions
INVESTMENT	Investment ÷ (beginning of period capital stock)
GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES	(Market value of the firm’s asset − common equity and deferred taxes) ÷ (Book value)
CASHFLOWS	(Income before extraordinary items + Depreciation) ÷ (Beginning of period capital)
LOGBOOKASSET	Log(Value of Assets adjusted for inflation)
SHORTTERMDEBT	(Short Term Debt) ÷ (Firm’s Assets)
LONGTERMDEBT	(Long Term Debt) ÷ (Firm’s Assets)
FINANCIAL SLACK	Cash and short term investment ÷ previous year Assets
DUMMYDIVPAYOUT	Equal to 1 if firm pays dividend, 0 otherwise
DUMMYBONDRATING	Equal to one if firm has bond rating 0 otherwise
COVERAGE RATIO	Interests ÷ Earnings Before Interest
ASSET SALES	(Sales of property, plant and Equipment) ÷ beginning of period capital

Note: Using the COMPUSTAT Xpressfeed data items, the above variables are defined as follows: Investment=capx, capital=ppent, (Market value of Assets)=prcc_c*csho, (Common Equity)=ceq, (Book value of assets)=at, (Income Before Extraordinary Items) =ib, Depreciation=dp, Short Term Debt=dlc, Long Term Debt = dltt, (Cash and short term investment)=che,Dividends =dv, Interest=xint, Earnings Before Interest=ebidta, (Sales of Property, plant and equipments)=sppe