We find that equity mispricing impacts the speed at which firms adjust to their target leverage and does so in predictable ways depending on whether the firm is over- or underlevered. For example, firms that are above their target leverage and should therefore issue equity (or retire debt),...

This study examines corporate leverage during systemic banking crises in an international setting including 85 countries from 1987 to 2017. Using the historically determined component of institutions and exogenous variations in institution building, the analyses show that leverage cyclicality...

We examine the dynamic behavior of bank capital using a global sample of 64 countries during the 1994–2010 period. Banks achieve deleveraging primarily through equity growth (rather than asset liquidation). In contrast, they achieve leveraging through reduced earnings retention and substantial...

Prior studies show uncertain associations between board independence and firm performance. We propose a novel measure of board independence and argue that influential CEO-directors (ICDs), those with higher compensation than the appointing firm's CEO, are more independent of appointing firm's...

Despite ample research demonstrating many consequences of bank geographic deregulation, the bank capital determinants literature has not directly tested the effects of this deregulation. This paper fills this important research gap. We find strong evidence that geographic deregulation...