Does a financial crisis affect operating risk? Evidence from Polish listed companies

Abstract

In turbulent times of crisis the variability of both EBIT and operating revenue increase in comparison to a relatively stable post crisis period. The main aim of this paper is to investigate this relationship across these two periods. The hypothesis is that the degree of operating leverage (DOL) is significantly higher during the crisis period (2007-2010) than in the post-crisis period (2011-2015). Additionally the authors checked whether there were significant differences across defined industries and also verified whether all industries had responded in the same way to Financial Crisis as far as DOL is concerned. The main findings are: (a) The Financial Crisis of the years 2008‑2009 significantly influenced the DOL of Polish stock companies; (b) There are substantial differences of the DOL across industries; (c) The DOL in the case of all industries investigated changed in the same direction when comparing two selected subperiods.