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Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 80 2023

Bank loans and bond prices

James Weston1; Emmanuel Yimfor2

1 Rice University · 2 Ross School

Abstract

We test whether bank loans change public bond yields. A 25% increase in bank debt raises bond yields by 8 bps, reflecting a trade-off between the benefits of bank cross-monitoring and higher bond risk. This effect is smaller for firms with no credit default swaps (CDSs) and with junk debt—scenarios where bank monitoring is most valuable. It is unlikely that firms with bank debt are riskier, because they are less likely to be downgraded and have lower loan spreads. We find similar results using a natural experiment around the 2014 oil shock. Our results highlight how bond yields depend on incentive conflicts among creditors.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2023.102406
Volume
80
Pages
102406
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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