Assume that you are interested in examining the effect of earnings volatility (uncertainty) on firms target capital structure using a panel data of firms listed on Palestine Exchange between 2012 and 2019. In light of your study of capital structure decisions, you think that earnings volatility is a determinant factor of capital structure. Moreover, you reason that earnings volatility effect on leverage targets is greater than the impact of firm size, market-to-book ratio, assets tangibility, R&D intensity, ..., and it is the most critical among all time-varying determinants of leverage targets. Further, you think that high level of uncertainty decreases debt tax shields, increases potential financial distress costs, and exacerbates debtholdershareholder conflicts, thereby leading to a lower optimal target of capital structure

. A. What should be your testable hypotheses?

B. What Should be your dependent, independent, and controllable variables?

C. Indicate the type of model(s) you are going to use.

D. How are you going to test your hypotheses?