This paper examines the effect of accounting quality on the degree of debt concentration (i.e., the tendency to rely predominantly on only a few types of debt) in corporate capital structures. Building on theoretical and empirical studies arguing that asymmetric information increases the...

This paper examines the effect of dispersion in firms' existing debt structures on the use of covenants in new loans. The authors find that more covenants are included when the existing debt is more dispersed. This result is consistent with the idea that dispersed debt structures harbor a...

While it is generally maintained that earnings management can occur to inform as well as to mislead, evidence that earnings management informs has been scarce, and evidence that credibility increases with signal costliness inexistent. We provide evidence that firms use discretion over financial...