April 2000 - Debt-equity ratios do not tend to increase after financial liberalization, but there is a shift from long-term to short-term debt. Globalization has uneven effects for firms with and without access to international capital markets. Countries with deeper domestic financial markets...

This paper studies how crises prompted firms to switch borrowing across markets, impacting the amount borrowed, maturity, and currency denomination at the firm and aggregate levels. Using data on worldwide debt issuance from advanced and emerging economies, the paper shows that firms shifted...