This paper investigates cash holding behaviour of firms from France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US using data for 4,069 companies over the period 1996-2000. Our focus is particularly on the relation between cash holdings and leverage. We argue that the impact of leverage on cash balances of...

We compare the determinants of the corporate debt ownership structure in a bank-oriented economy (Germany) and market-oriented economy (UK). The results, that are controlled for endogeneity, simultaneity and measurement errors, show that the firms in both countries adjust their debt ownership...

We examine whether the effect of increased creditor rights on corporate borrowing depends on firm's access to internal capital. By exploiting a creditor protection reform in India, empirical outcomes strongly indicate that strengthening of creditor rights leads to increased corporate borrowing...

Corporate debt in emerging markets has risen significantly in recent years amid accommodative global financial conditions. This paper studies the relationship of leverage growth in emerging market (EM) firms to U.S. monetary conditions, and more broadly, to global financial conditions. We find...

This paper explores how global financial conditions influence corporate leverage growth. Using a sample of 800,000 listed and non-listed firms across 28 emerging markets (EMs), we find that accommodative global financial conditions—initially proxied with a measure of U.S. monetary policy—are...

We augment the LLSV creditor rights index with a new “restructuring index” that measures the incentives provided to creditors to grant concessions outside formal bankruptcy. We study the joint impact of the two indexes on a firm's leverage policy. We show that the two indexes have at most a...

We examine how production flexibility affects financial leverage. A worldwide sample of energy utilities allows us to apply direct measures for production flexibility based on their power plants. We find that production flexibility increases financial leverage. For identification, we exploit...

This paper presents evidence that firms choose conservative financial policies partly to mitigate workers' exposure to unemployment risk. We exploit changes in state unemployment insurance laws as a source of variation in the costs borne by workers during layoff spells. We find that higher...