Fair value accounting forces institutions to revalue inventory whenever a transaction occurs. An institution that faces a balance sheet constraint may have incentives to suspend trading in Level 3 assets (traded on opaque over-the-counter markets) in order to avoid such marking-to-market. This...

We investigate the trade-off between incentive provision and inefficient rollover freezes for a firm financed with short-term debt. First, debt maturity that is too short-term is inefficient, even with incentive provision. The optimal maturity is an interior solution that avoids excessive...

The empty creditor problem arises when a debtholder has obtained insurance against default but otherwise retains control rights in and outside bankruptcy. We analyze this problem from an ex ante and ex post perspective in a formal model of debt with limited commitment, by comparing contracting...