Recent years have seen a sharp decline in the use of balance sheet-based covenants in private debt contracts. I hypothesize that changes in accounting standards can explain part of this decline. Standard setting has shifted towards a “balance sheet approach”, which I predict has made the...

I document the variation in measurement of financial covenants, focusing on three measurement rules: earnings (EBITDA vs. EBIT), firm value (including or excluding intangible assets) and inclusion of escalator clauses (provisions that increase the threshold of net worth covenants). I find that...

Recent years have seen a new trend in commercial bank lending—loans with no financial covenants. These covenant light, or cov-lite, loans raise concerns about excessive risk to lenders due to lack of monitoring. In this study, we examine the consequences of cov-lite loans. Focusing on rated,...

This paper develops a measure of disclosure investment strategy using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to apply a production formulation to firms' investments in mandatory and voluntary disclosures. Conceptually, the “disclosure production” of a firm consists of a variety of disclosure...

This study examines the selection of financial ratio covenants in debt contracts. Expanding on existing theory and evidence, I predict that loan contracts will include covenants with ratios that are informative of credit risk based on borrower or contract characteristics. The results support...

Recent years have seen a preponderance of accounting research using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure efficiency. In this study, I examine the calculation of DEA efficiency, with a focus on large panel datasets of financial accounting information. Using simulation and archival data, I...

Credit default swaps (CDS) represent a major innovation in debt markets, allowing lenders to transfer credit risk to a counterparty by paying a premium. Shan, Tang, and Winton (2019) explore whether the availability of CDS affects the monitoring incentives of lenders. Their paper finds that CDS...

I examine the use of financial covenants when contracting for debt under uncertainty. Uncertainty, in the context of this study, is a lack of information about future economic events and their consequences for the borrower's creditworthiness. I examine the implications of ex-ante uncertainty...

Evidence of the effect of lender financial reporting incentives on debt contract design is sparse. We examine whether regulatory capital adequacy, a first-order reporting concern for banks, is associated with the strictness of financial covenants included in loan contracts. We provide evidence...

Recent years have seen a preponderance of accounting research using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure efficiency. In this study, I examine the calculation of efficiency using DEA, with a focus on large panel datasets of financial accounting data. Using simulation and archival data, I...