Using a sample of 27 countries between 1990 and 2014, we find that banks charge higher interest rates and adjust other contractual features of their loans when lending to firms facing more stringent environmental regulations. Our evidence suggests that lenders' concerns about the increase in...

We examine the effect of CEO marital status on corporate cash holdings. Consistent with the agency framework, we find that firms with single CEOs hold more cash compared to otherwise similar firms with married CEOs. Our findings suggest that corporate tax avoidance and lower dividend payouts are...

Utilizing a news-based index of geopolitical risk (GPR) and using over 62 years of data, we find that GPR has a long-lasting negative impact on leverage. This result is robust to different model specifications, different proxies for leverage, several robustness tests, and survive after...

This paper investigates how product market competition affects the performance of closely held small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies. In contrast to prior findings that focus on large publicly traded companies in developed economies, we find that market competition has a...