We show that U.S. industrial firms invest heavily in non-cash, risky financial assets such as corporate debt, equity, and mortgage-backed securities. Risky assets represent 40% of firms' financial portfolios, or 6% of total book assets. We present a formal model to assess the optimality of risky...

Using hand-collected data on financial asset portfolios, we investigate corporate risk-taking through risky financial investments. We find that distressed firms with large short-term liabilities substantially increase their investments in risky financial assets, including corporate debt, equity,...