We study managers' self-assessment of their firm's financial constraint status to assess the validity of commonly used indicators of financial constraints. As categorizations based on common financial constraints measures lead to high misclassifications, we derive a new measure of financial...

We directly estimate the probability of default, the value of tax shields and expected cost of financial distress of firms, using a structural model calibrated and estimated from market prices (CDS and stock price data). This provides for high-frequency data on the major costs and benefits of...

This paper suggests a motive for bank mergers that goes beyond alleged and typically unverifiable scale economies: preemtive resolution of banks ́financial distress. Such "distress mergers" can be a significant motivation for mergers because they can foster reorganizations, realize...

This paper suggests a motive for bank mergers that goes beyond alleged and typically unverifiable scale economies: preemtive resolution of banks' financial distress. Such "distress mergers" can be a significant motivation for mergers because they can foster reorganizations, realize...

Universal Banks, Corporate Control, and Equity Carve-Outs in Germany This paper analyzes value effects of changes in the governance structure of German firms due to equity carve-outs. Our main conjecture is that the degree of pre-event corporate control affects market reactions to the...