This paper argues that groups reduce bankruptcy costs with respect not only to stand-alone units (thanks to coinsurance) but to conglomerates as well (thanks to corporate limited liability). This allows groups to save on contagion costs, thereby generating more value than conglomerates despite a...

Parent guarantees to subsidiary bond issues can circumvent restrictive covenants on parent debt, and transfer wealth from bond- to equity-holders or maximize parent managers' private benefits. We find that parent firms expecting stringent covenants on their own debt more likely guarantee...

I use an accounting reform to assess the agency cost of debt in diversified firms. Firms that switch from single-to-multisegment following the reform suffer a 12% increase in the bond spread than their standalone peers. Consistent with lenders anticipating underinvestment and asset substitution...

I investigate the effect of subsidiary debt issuance on the bond- and stock- value of its parentfirm. Parent bondholders suffer a negative abnormal return of 35 bps in the week of thesubsidiary debt, but a jump in the stock returns by 70 bps. Consistent with bondholdersanticipating a transfer of...

I investigate the effect of subsidiary bonds issuance on the bond- and stock- value of parent firms. I document negative bond returns of 35 bps on the parent outstanding debt, in the week of the subsidiary bond issuance. I find that the likelihood of issuing subsidiary debt is positively...

Are bank resolution regimes effective enough to improve financial stability? We look at the effect of the new bank resolution reforms on the systemic risk of big financial conglomerates. We find that in developed countries, parents in a stricter resolution regime have lower systemic risk...