← Search

Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 3 No. 4 1997

Debt and equity as optimal contracts

João A. C. Santos1,2

1 Federal Reserve Bank of New York · 2 Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

open access

Abstract

This paper shows the simultaneous optimally of debt and equity contracts in a principal-agent model. The agent (an entrepreneur) has an investment project but does not have the necessary funds to finance it. There is moral hazard in the model, generated by the dependence of the project's expected return on the (unobservable) agent's effort. Key to the optimality of these financial instruments is the nonassignable rent produced by the project and captured by the entrepreneur when the investment is successful.

DOI
10.1016/s0929-1199(97)00004-7
Volume
3
Issue
4
Pages
355-366
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite