Detractors have warned that Private Equity (PE) funds tend to over-lever their portfolio companies because of an option-like payoff, building up default risk and debt overhang. This paper argues PE-ownership leads to substantially higher levels of optimal (value-maximizing) leverage, by reducing...

Consistent with the incentive implication of inside debt, I show that active equity mutual funds invest less in companies whose CEOs are awarded with higher debt-like compensation, whereas corporate bond mutual funds invest more in such companies. This finding persists after accounting for...

We examine whether the reinvestment choices of public pension funds affect the governance of venture capital funds. We start with a hand-collected dataset of litigation against venture capitalists (VCs) that provides significant shocks to the reputation of VCs. We combine that information with...

We model restructuring when hedge funds with expertise in navigating distress intervene. Whether hedge funds help distressed firms or act like vultures are two sides of the same coin. Interventions help when firm prospects are bright and assets are not easily redeploy-able. Interventions are...

In this article we expand the semi-replication framework by Burgard and Kjaer to derivative books with multiple counterparties. We then find the funding strategy that corresponds to the recent funding value adjustment accounting proposal by Albanese and Andersen. This strategy is asymmetric and...

We evaluate changes in investment bank balance sheets during financial crises to determine how these firms respond to funding shocks. Most investment banks maintain funding levels during these downturns, suggesting that liquidity shocks are not a trigger for their financial troubles. Among the...

I model an open-end mutual fund investing in illiquid assets and show that the fund's endogenous cash management can generate shareholder runs even with a flexible NAV. The fund optimally re-builds its cash buffers at time t 1 after outflows at t to prevent future forced sales of illiquid...

Our paper investigates spillover effects across different business segments of publicly traded financial conglomerates. We find that the investment decisions of mutual fund shareholders do not just depend on the prior performance of the mutual funds, they also depend on the prior performance of...

Insolvency law faces the challenge of properly liquidating insolvent estates. To achieve this, insolvency representatives need to be skilled, and paid. Countries have adopted different models for compensating insolvency representatives who liquidate estates. While a proper insolvency funding...

Managerial incentives are skewed in non-listed funds under finite horizons. Compensation structures are only indirectly related to shareholder wealth maximization when share prices are unobservable. Liquidity options for investors are limited in the absence of an exchange listing. Using a...