Topic > The theory of Modigliani and Miller: perfect conditions...

The results obtained by the collaboration of Modigliani and Miller in 1958, were an attempt to demonstrate that financial decisions should not be significant in perfect market conditions, after upon its publication the theory of Modigliani and Miller became the leading theory of capital structure. In the M&M theory suggested that the market is fully efficient, meaning there are no taxes, however in the theory Modigliani and Miller included taxes in order to reflect their theories in reality, and the theory also suggests that there are no failure costs . There are three propositions published by Modigliani and Miller which are: • Proposition 1: The total market value of a firm is independent of its capital structure. Proposition 2: The cost of equity capital increases with its debt-to-equity ratio. • First proposition: Irrelevance of the capital structure: The market value is not influenced by the capital structure of the company, this is what the first proposition of M&M stated; in the first proposition it is stated that under certain conditions the company's debt capital has no effect on the market value of the company. This approach is based on the following: The capital structure is perfect: assuming that no costs are applied and that investors have the ability to buy and sell securities and are also aware of any changes; no costs for buying or selling securities for brokers, for example. Modigliani and Miller's assumption is that all of these capital market factors necessary for securities trading are all perfect. Modigliani and Miller applied their theories with two modules, one that does not include taxes and this is their first discovery, and another one with taxes to make it more realistic. The First Proposition without