Bank intermediated finance has been cited frequently as the preferred means for channeling funds from savers to firms. Germany is the prototypical economy where universal banks allegedly exert substantial influence over firms. Despite frequent assertions about the considerable power of German...

Customer concentration increases supplier firms’ operational and financial risks. We posit that, for supplier firms sharing a common auditor with their major customer, creditors would perceive that the financial statements of the suppliers better reflect the inherent uncertainties and...

Productive firms can access credit markets directly by issuing corporate bonds or by borrowing through financial intermediaries. In this paper, we study the cyclical properties of corporate credit provision through these two types of debt instruments in major advanced economies. We argue that...

Banks play a role in the corporate governance of firms as well as acting as debt financiers around the world. Universal banks can have control over borrowing firms by representation on the board of directors or by holding shares through direct stakes or institutional holdings. We investigate the...

Zombie firms may adversely impact healthy firms through several transmission channels. Besides real spillover effects on productivity or investment, zombies may also cause negative financial spillover effects, where zombies receive credit at more favourable conditions than healthy firms. We...

We examine the factors that influence public firms' choice between project financing and corporate financing. Using a sample of 15,191 syndicated deals closed between 2000 and 2016, we find that economies of scale, agency costs of debt, and information asymmetry arguments affect the choice of...

We study the impact of human capital transfer from banks to non-financial firms on firms' ability to borrow from banks. Using a unique, employee-employer matched dataset from Russia, we find that hiring an ex-banker increases a firm's likelihood to secure a bank loan, and the effect is higher...

Productive firms can access credit markets directly by issuing corporate bonds or by borrowing through financial intermediaries. In this paper, we study the cyclical properties of corporate credit provision through these two types of debt instruments in major advanced economies. We argue that...