Many U.S. corporate bonds are either callable or convertible. While callable bonds provide a higher coupon to bondholders in exchange for a firm's repurchase option of its claim, convertible bonds offer investors the option to exchange a firm's debt to equity. This paper analyzes the choice...

In this paper we build a theoretical model of a firm repurchasing its corporate debt. We find that firm creditors as a group sell debt to the firm only at face value. However, because of the cross-creditor externalities buying back debt is cheaper and easier when there are many creditors, e.g.,...

I develop a dynamic capital structure model in which shareholders determine a firm's leverage ratio, debt maturity, and default strategy. In my model, the firm's debt matures all at once. Therefore, after repaying the principal shareholders own all the firm's cash flows and can pick a new...

In 1825, France conditioned its grant of recognition to the new nation of Haiti on the payment of 150 million francs plus trade benefits. The payments were, at least in part, compensation for the losses that French plantation owners suffered, a key part of which was the loss of enslaved...