Banks face two different kinds of moral hazard problems: asset substitution by shareholders (e.g., making risky, negative net present value loans) and managerial rent seeking (e.g., investing in inefficient “pet” projects and consuming perquisites that yield private benefits). The privately...

Intuition suggests that firms with higher cash holdings should be 'safer' and have lower credit spreads. Yet empirically, the correlation between cash and spreads is robustly positive. This puzzling finding can be explained by the precautionary motive for saving cash, which in our model causes...

We consider a model in which the threat of bank liquidations by creditors as well as equity-based compensation incentives both discipline bankers, but with different consequences. Greater use of equity leads to lower ex ante bank liquidity, whereas greater use of debt leads to a higher...

We study how the consequences of violations of covenants associated with bank lines of credit to firms vary with the financial health of lenders. Following a violation banks restrict usage of lines of credit by raising spreads, shortening maturities, tightening covenants, or cancelling the line...

We examine the relation between the financial health of banks and their willingness to supply capital to borrowers under previously committed credit lines. We show that during the collapse of the Asset Backed Commercial Paper market in the last quarter of 2007 and the first half of 2008, banks...

We suggest a new mechanism–the liquidity insurance channel–based on the widespread reliance of high credit quality firms on bank credit lines for liquidity management. Our model matches the patterns of usage of loans and credit lines in the cross-section of firms, and defines the conditions...