In 2011, Colombia instituted a tax on repayment of bank loans, thereby increasing the cost of short-term bank credit more than long-term credit. Firms responded by cutting their short-term loans for liquidity management purposes and increasing their use of cash and trade credit. In industries...

In 2011, Colombia instituted a tax on repayment of bank loans, thereby increasing the cost of short-term bank credit more than long-term credit. Firms responded by cutting their short-term loans for liquidity management purposes and increasing their use of cash and trade credit. In industries...

This paper studies the bank credit and industry growth effects stemming from the introduction of a tax on bank debits. Using a sample of Latin American countries that implemented this tax at different times between 1986 and 2005, I exploit a key channel through which this levy affects the supply...

We show that sovereign debt impairments can have a significant impact on financial markets and real economies through a credit ratings channel. Specifically, we find that firms reduce their investment and reliance on credit markets due to a rising cost of debt capital following a sovereign...

We examine whether underwriters price-up weakly-demanded IPOs to prevent withdrawal. Our empirical strategy exploits a discontinuity in the distribution of IPO prices around the low boundary of the filing range. Offerings with a high ex-ante withdrawal probability that are priced at this...

We examine the behavior of a large sample of private firms before and after the elimination of an inflation adjustment system in Colombia in 2007. We show that firms avoid reporting small losses by exercising considerable discretion in their use of inflation adjustments, and find that this...

We investigate the effect of the “7% solution”—the fact that underwriters in the U.S. charge a 7% spread to most IPOs between $20 million and $100 million in size—on the ensuing pricing of the offerings. Our identification exploits the variation in spreads that is due to distinct kinks...