The goal of this study is to identify empirically how country-level development, taking into account the financial and macroeconomic environment, affect the risk profiles of the banking sector in Europe. Through a dataset that covers 3,399 European banks spanning the period 1996-2011, and the...

In order to identify the relevant sources of firms' financing constraints, we ask what financial frictions matter for corporate policies. To that end, we build, solve, and estimate a range of dynamic models of corporate investment and financing, embedding a host of financial frictions. We focus...

This study examines the actual funding behavior of German innovative firms in the pre- and post-crisis period. Specifically, we investigate if and how the funding patterns and financial constraints of German small and medium enterprises (SME) changed during and since the financial crisis. The...

We explore the capital structure and governance of a mortgage-insuring securitization utility operating with government reinsurance for systemic or “tail” risk. The structure we propose for the replacement of the GSEs focuses on aligning incentives for appropriate pricing and transfer of...

I develop a hypothesis that predicts nonlinear patterns of leverage and cash holdings over firms' financial flexibility demand stages. The hypothesis also predicts distinctive financing patterns over the financial flexibility demand stages. The empirical results support the hypothesis:...

This paper provides new evidence on how the largest nonfinancial firms actively manage the composition of their financial assets. We construct a novel hand-collected panel dataset to document their financial portfolio dynamics. Over the past decade, bond portfolios have grown to be at least as...

This study investigates the puzzle of zero-debt on in developing markets using a sample of firms from Eastern Europe during 2000-2013. The results of this paper are in line with the previous research of firms from developed markets. Firms that are financially constrained do not use debt as a...

We find that leverage-initiating stocks experience an increase in return comovement with existing leveraged stocks and a decrease in return comovement with existing zero-leverage stocks in the year after the leverage initiation event. In contrast, stocks that fully deleverage comove more with...

We examine how time-varying macroeconomic conditions affect firms' financing decisions. A principal components decomposition of several macroeconomic variables characterizes three phases of the business cycle relative to recessions: early recovery, robust recovery, and economic crest; a fourth...

This article investigates how “systematic” adjustment costs proxied by market imperfections, and macroeconomic conditions affect capital structure dynamics in a cross-country setting. We document substantial variations in firms' capital structure adjustments across countries and,...