We analyze the impact of monetary policy on cross-border bank flows for a large sample of countries over two decades. We find evidence in favor of a cross-border risk-taking channel, as the monetary policy stance of source countries is an important determinant of cross-border bank flows. A relatively tighter monetary policy in source countries prompts banks to reallocate their lending toward safer foreign counterparties. The cross-border reallocation of credit is more pronounced for source countries with lower-capitalized banks. Also, the reallocation is directed toward foreign borrowers in relatively safer destinations, such as advanced economies or economies with investment-grade sovereign ratings.

We study the effect of financial constraints on risk and expected returns by extending the investment‐based asset pricing framework to incorporate retained earnings, debt, costly equity, and collateral constraints on debt capacity. Quantitative results show that more financially constrained firms are riskier and earn higher expected stock returns than less financially constrained firms. Intuitively, by preventing firms from financing all desired investments, collateral constraints restrict the flexibility of firms in smoothing dividend streams in the face of aggregate shocks. The inflexibility mechanism also gives rise to a convex relation between market leverage and expected stock returns.