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Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 58 No. 3 2023

Maturity Clienteles and Corporate Bond Maturities

Alexander W. Butler1; Xiang Gao2; Cihan Uzmanoglu3

1 Rice University · 2 Loyola University Chicago · 3 Binghamton University

Abstract

The average maturity of newly issued corporate bonds has declined substantially over the past 40 years, and the traditional determinants of debt maturity fail to explain this decline fully. We show that the changing composition of investors in the corporate bond market influences bond maturities. The results of a Granger causality test, an instrumental variable approach, and a natural experiment suggest that a decline in the insurance companies’ – which prefer long-term bonds – ownership share in the corporate bond market explains a significant part of the unexplained maturity decline. These findings illustrate how investor preferences can have real effects on corporations.

DOI
10.1017/s0022109022000692
Volume
58
Issue
3
Pages
1263-1294
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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