We analyze the link between creditor rights and firms' investment policies, proposing that stronger creditor rights in bankruptcy reduce corporate risk-taking. In cross-country analysis, we find that stronger creditor rights induce greater propensity of firms to engage in diversifying...

We use business register data for the United Kingdom to document the importance of the different channels that firms use to adjust their size. We show how the choice of adjustment channel impacts upon firm-level variables such as wages or productivity.

We study the interplay between corporate liquidity and asset reallocation opportunities. Our model shows that financially distressed firms are acquired by liquid firms in their industries even when there are no operational synergies associated with the merger. We call these transactions...

We propose that stronger creditor rights in bankruptcy reduce corporate risk-taking. Employing country-level data, we find that strong creditor rights are associated with a greater propensity of firms to engage in diversifying mergers, and this propensity changes in response to changes in the...

The German Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) has recently passed a judgement in which it held board members of a company liable for oral information given to investors during a quot;road showquot;. After the company had decided on an increase in its capital, the members of its...

This paper presents a continuous time model of a firm that can dynamically adjust both its capital structure and its investment choices. The model extends the dynamic capital structure literature by endogenizing the investment choice as well as firm value, which are both determined by an...

This paper develops a model that analyzes the impact of manager-stockholder conflicts and control challenge threats on leverage, firm value and debt restructuring frequency in a contingent claims framework. This is the first theoretical study to merge several lines of research - market for...

A hot growth stock in the 1980s, L.A. Gear's equity fell from $1 billion in market value in 1989 to zero in 1998. For over six years as revenues declined precipitously, management tried a series of radical strategy shifts while subsidizing the firm's large losses through working-capital...

While much attention has been focused on the optimal ratio of a firm's debt to equity, the quot;optimalquot; or best balance between bond financing and (longer-term) bank financing has scarcely been addressed. This essay examines the principal differences between an economy with a well-developed...

We provide evidence that creditors play an active role in the governance of corporations well outside of payment default states. By examining the SEC filings of all U.S. nonfinancial firms from 1996 through 2008, we document that, in any given year, between 10 percent and 20 percent of firms...