Corporates in many EMEs have taken advantage of unusually easy global financial conditions to ramp up their overseas borrowing and leverage. This could expose them to increased interest rate and currency risks unless these positions are adequately hedged. The key question is whether EME...

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,...

We study the effects of country-level creditor protections on the firm-level choice of debt structure. Using data from 46 countries, we show that firms have more concentrated debt structures in countries with stronger creditor protection. Firms choose debt structure concentrations by trading-off...

We provide evidence on leverage and debt maturity targeting in a large international setting. There are key differences in the relative importance of institutional factors in explaining actual as opposed to target capital structures. Targets and target deviations are plausibly influenced by the...

This paper investigates changes in the speed of adjustment toward target leverage ratio under the impact of COVID-19 economic crisis. Using an international sample of publicly listed firms, we find that, on average, firms tend to adjust their capital structure more rapidly in the period...

We use a new international setting to test and strengthen the identification of “target leverage hypothesis” in the payout policy literature. We conduct a quasi-natural experiment induced by staggered share repurchase legalization in 17 economies and analyze its influences on leverage...

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the effects of firm-level financing patterns on their profitability and productivity, contributing to two related literatures: (i) should the link between financial development and growth be conducted at a firm level? (ii) which type of financing...

We contribute to the corporate capital structure and bank specialness literatures by studying the effects of bank debt on corporate value. We apply novel methodology to almost 60,000 firms in 110 countries over 17 years—over 300,000 total observations. We find that bank term loans and credit...

Does state ownership hinder or help firms access credit? We use data on almost 4 million firms in 89 countries to study the relationship between state ownership and corporate leverage. Controlling for country-sector-year fixed effects and conventional firm-level determinants of leverage, we show...

Does state ownership hinder or help firms access credit? We use data on almost 4 million firms in 89 countries to study the relationship between state ownership and corporate leverage. Controlling for country-sector-year fixed effects and conventional firm-level determinants of leverage, we show...