Using Chinese comment letters data, we investigate the impact of the disclosure of comment letters on the cost of debt financing. Empirical results show that when the comment letters are publicly disclosed, creditors charge borrowers significantly higher cost of debt financing. Furthermore, when...

The costs of financial intermediation have important consequences for financial development. Using bank-level data for 160 countries during 2005-14, this paper analyzes the composition and sources of bank net interest margins. First, it uses an accounting decomposition framework to provide...