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Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 56 No. 3 2021

The Spillover Effects of Hurricane Katrina on Corporate Bonds and the Choice Between Bank and Bond Financing

Massimo Massa1; Lei Zhang2

1 INSEAD · 2 City University of Hong Kong

Abstract

We use an exogenous event, namely, the spillover effects of Hurricane Katrina on corporate bonds through the liquidation of bond holdings by insurance companies, to study how companies react to temporary changes in the relative availability of bond and bank financing. We find that the negative shock on bonds induces firms to shift from bond financing to bank-based borrowing and to shorten the debt maturity. This shift in debt policy does not revert in the long term. There is no significant change in capital structure, suggesting that the substitution from bonds to bank loans is sufficient for the amount of borrowing.

DOI
10.1017/s0022109020000459
Volume
56
Issue
3
Pages
885-913
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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