Abstract: This article takes the data of 354 listed companies in China from 2002 to 2007 as sample,and uses the classification of industry by growth rate in industry economics for reference to define the life cycle stage of listed companies,and then through the statistical analysis and econometric model studyies the differences of financing structure of listed companies in different stages of the life cycle and the factors which cause the differences. Research result shows that the financing structure of listed companies is significantly different among different stages of enterprises' life cycle. The long term debt ratio is higher in the growing stages,and the short term debt ratio is higher in the maturity stage comparing with the growing and recession stages,but has a smaller difference with the growing stage. Through further discussion we find that in the perspective of the companies themselves,the long term debt ratio is closely related to the secured-assets and the short-term debt ratio is closely related to its performance,growth,size and internal governance.

Key words: enterprises life cycle, financing structure, listed companies, empirical study