In the context of large acquisitions, we provide evidence on whether firms have target capital structures. We examine how deviations from these targets affect how bidders choose to finance acquisitions and how they adjust their capital structure following the acquisitions. We show that when a...

In the context of large acquisitions, we provide evidence on whether firms have target capital structures. We examine how deviations from these targets affect how bidders choose to finance acquisitions and how they adjust their capital structure following the acquisitions. We show that when a...

We find that to mitigate refinancing risk caused by shorter maturity debt, firms increase their cash holdings and save more cash from their cash flows. We also document that the maturity of U.S. firms' long-term debt has markedly shortened over the 1980-2008 period and that this shortening...

Theory predicts that in concentrated industries with high product similarity, horizontal acquisitions can effectively increase incumbent firms’ market power. Using a novel measure for industry product similarity, we show that in such industries firms’ propensity to make horizontal...