In this paper we test the pecking order and trade-off hypotheses of corporate financing decisions using a cross-section of the largest Chinese listed companies. We build on Allen (1993) and Baskin (1989) to set up three models in which trade-off and pecking order theories give distinctively different predictions: (1) the determinants of leverage, (2) the relationship between leverage and divide...

Drawing on Robinson’s cognition hypothesis, the study attempted to examine how task conditions influence EFL learners’ oral performance and whether learners’ individual differences in terms of tolerance of ambiguity and self-efficacy mediate the effects of such conditions. To this end, 62 Iranian intermediate EFL learners from private language institutes in Tehran performed four dyadic decision...

It has been more than two decades since the formulation of the so-called 'trade-off' hypothesis as an alternative to the then commonly accepted idea that parasites should always evolve towards avirulence (the 'avirulence hypothesis'). The trade-off hypothesis states that virulence is an unavoidable consequence of parasite transmission; however, since the 1990s, this hypothesis has been increasi...

The oxidation handicap hypothesis proposes that testosterone mediates the trade-off between the expression of secondary sexual traits and the fight against free radicals. Coloured traits controlled by testosterone can be produced by carotenoid pigments (yellow-orange-red traits), but carotenoids also help to quench free radicals. Recently, it has been shown that testosterone increases the amoun...

Competition theory predicts that multispecies coexistence requires that species have traits that fall on the same interspecific trade-off surface. Fossil records for mollusks, mammals, trees, and other taxa show that with rare exception, ecologically similar species have coexisted for a million years or more after interchange between formerly isolated realms. This coexistence suggests the possi...

Plant growth can be limited by resource acquisition and defence against consumers, leading to contrasting trade-off possibilities. The competition-defence hypothesis posits a trade-off between competitive ability and defence against enemies (e.g. herbivores and pathogens). The growth-defence hypothesis suggests that strong competitors for nutrients are also defended against enemies, at a cost t...