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Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 109 No. 4 1994

Short-Term versus Long-Term Interests: Capital Structure with Multiple Investors

E. Berglof; E.-L. von Thadden

Abstract

We study the problem of financial contracting and renegotiation between a firm and outside investors when the firm cannot commit to future payouts, but assets can be contracted upon. We show that a capital structure with multiple investors specializing in short-term and long-term claims is superior to a structure with only one type of claim, because this hardens the incentives for the entrepreneur to renegotiate the contract ex post. Depending on the parameters, the optimal capital structure also differentiates between state-independent and state-dependent longterm claims, which can be interpreted as long-term debt and equity.

DOI
10.2307/2118356
Volume
109
Issue
4
Pages
1055-1084
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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