Dynamics of financial leverage across firm life cycle in Chinese firms: an empirical investigation using dynamic panel data model

China Finance and Economic Review

Table 4 Descriptive statistics of firms classification variables

Variables	Observation	Mean	Standard deviation
Growth stage
Dividend payout ratio (median)	1539	0.058	0.094
Sales growth (median)	1539	0.300	0.159
Age	1539	2.670	0.199
Mature stage
Dividend payout ratio (median)	7726	0.202	0.244
Sales growth (median)	7726	0.138	0.191
Age	7726	2.873	0.201
Decline stage
Dividend payout ratio (median)	1009	0.456	0.202
Sales growth (median)	1009	0.057	0.093
Age	1009	3.020	0.105

Sales growth is the median of annual sales growth for prior 5 years. Dividend payout ratio is the median of dividend payout ratio for prior 5 year. Age is the natural logarithm of firm’s age