This paper provides a formal model of contingent convertible bonds (CCBs), debt instruments that automatically convert to equity if and when the issuing firm or bank reaches a specified level of financial distress. We develop closed-form solutions for the value of CCBs with market-based...

We examine the relation between CEOs' equity incentives and their use of performance-sensitive debt contracts. These contracts require higher or lower interest payments when the borrower's performance deteriorates or improves, thereby increasing expected costs of financial distress while also...

We consider optimal incentive contracts when managers can, in addition to shirking or diverting funds, increase short term profits by putting the firm at risk of a low probability "disaster." To avoid such risk-taking, investors must cede additional rents to the manager. In a dynamic context,...

We derive an optimal compensation contract that incentivizes a credit rating agency (CRA) to exert effort and issue unbiased ratings. The contract rewards CRA when its credit rating is matched by the subsequent bond performance and penalizes it otherwise. The optimal contract can be implemented...

We study the effects of PPP loans on business competition. Hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. airport hotel industry offers a useful empirical setting in which we observe daily prices (room rates), market shares (occupancy), and demand (airport traffic). Older and less profitable hotels...

We show that commercial mortgage borrowers behave opportunistically in order to obtain principal reductions. To guide our empirical analysis, we develop a model in which lenders cannot perfectly observe borrowers' use values and renegotiation is costly. We then study the effects of a 2009 IRS...

We investigate whether homeowners respond strategically to news of mortgage modification programs. We exploit plausibly exogenous variation in modification policy induced by U.S. state government lawsuits against Countrywide Financial Corporation, which agreed to offer modifications to seriously...