firms, we document dramatic reductions in leverage since the Great Recession. Leverage for the average private firm fell … fifteen percent between 2004 and 2018. In contrast, leverage among public firms rose during this period. The decline in … leverage among private firms is inconsistent with theories that suggest firm leverage tracks pro-cyclical credit market …

We use micro data from Orbis on firm level balance sheets and income statements to document that accounting returns for … financial returns to saving. The model matches the evidence on accounting returns and predicts that financial returns to saving … are half as large and dispersed as accounting returns. Financial returns mostly reflect risk, as opposed to collateral …

accounting for loan portfolios held to maturity. Marked-to-market bank assets have declined by an average of 10% across all the … banks, with the bottom 5th percentile experiencing a decline of 20%. We illustrate that uninsured leverage (i.e., Uninsured … banks had higher uninsured leverage. Combined, losses and uninsured leverage provide incentives for an SVB uninsured …

two years at a time and use generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) do not do this. We present an alternative …

statements. To examine the tradeoffs between financial and tax reporting, I model the relation discretionary financial accounting …

leverage as well as a lowering of future returns for firms in less competitive environments. Current leverage will therefore be … competitive industries, the negative relation between past returns and current leverage will be attenuated. Theory suggests that … the relation between current leverage and future returns for such firms will be zero or negative. Using a proxy to …