Exploring Intangible Assets’ Contribution to Capital Structure in Thailand’s Listed Companies During COVID-19

This study examines whether IAS 38-recognized identifiable intangible assets (excluding goodwill) are associated with corporate leverage in Thailand, an emerging bank-dominated financial system, and whether that relationship changed after the COVID-19 shock. Panel on listed firms supports a stepwise design. Estimation begins with firm fixed-effects models, then proceeds to stricter specifications that add year fixed effects and, in the preferred model, industry-by-year fixed effects; dynamic robustness is evaluated using System GMM. In baseline firm fixed-effects specifications, recognized intangible intensity is positively associated with leverage, and the post-COVID-19 interaction is also significant under lighter controls. Statistical significance, however, fades after accounting for broader macro-financial and sector-specific financing conditions, and System GMM results similarly yield weak coefficients for recognized intangibles once leverage persistence is accounted for. The findings imply that apparent financing relevance for recognized intangibles depends strongly on the surrounding financing regime rather than on a robust independent debt-capacity effect.