Using a new measure of shareholder inattention based on exogenous industry shocks to institutional investor portfolios, we document a positive and significant relation between firms with distracted institutional shareholders and the cost of debt financing. This effect is stronger for firms with...

Purpose: Study the impact of the heterogeneity of institutional investors, evident in their investment horizon, on firm credit ratings.Methodology/Approach: Use a large sample of U.S. firms over the period 1985 to 2006 (20,670 U.S. firm-year observations) to empirically investigate the...