A Fast Literature Search Engine based on top-quality journals, by Dr. Mingze Gao.
- Topic classification is ongoing.
- Please kindly let me know [mingze.gao@mq.edu.au] in case of any errors.
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Results 25 resources
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We show that municipalities’ financial constraints can have a significant impact on local employment and growth. We identify these effects by exploiting exogenous upgrades in U.S. municipal bond ratings caused by Moody’s recalibration of its ratings scale in 2010. We find that local governments increase expenditures because their debt capacity expands following a rating upgrade. These expenditures have an estimated local income multiplier of 1.9 and a cost per job of $20,000 per year. Our findings suggest that debt-financed increases in government spending can improve economic conditions during recessions.
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We study the effect of a bond’s place in its issuer’s maturity structure on credit risk. Using a structural model as motivation, we argue that bonds due relatively late in their issuers’ maturity structure have greater credit risk than do bonds due relatively early. Empirically, we find robust evidence that these later bonds have larger yield spreads and greater comovement with equity and that the magnitude of the effects is consistent with model predictions for investment-grade bonds. Our results highlight the importance of bond-specific credit risk for understanding corporate bond prices.
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We develop and estimate a tractable equilibrium term structure model populated with rational but heterogeneously informed traders that take on speculative positions to exploit what they perceive to be inaccurate market expectations about future bond prices. The speculative motive is an important driver of trading volume. Yield dynamics due to speculation are (1) statistically distinct from classical term structure components due to risk premiums and expectations about future short rates and are orthogonal to public information available to traders in real time and (2) quantitatively important, accounting for a substantial fraction of the variation of long maturity U.S. bond yields.
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In most U.S. states, mortgage seniority follows time priority: older mortgages are paid first. This potentially impedes refinancing of senior mortgages because replacement mortgages are junior unless the existing junior lienholders consent to resubordination. We exploit legal variation across states to provide evidence that time priority reduces refinancing, especially of smaller mortgages (suggesting a significant fixed cost of obtaining resubordination) and of mortgages close to the conforming loan limit. On the contrary, we find evidence that time priority renders second mortgages more valuable to lenders, increasing the likelihood that a borrower obtains a second mortgage.
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We use an asset pricing approach to compare the effects of the liquidity level and liquidity risk on expected U.S. corporate bond returns. Using signed transaction data, we estimate effective transaction costs for bond portfolios by a repeat-sales method. We find that the liquidity level and exposure to equity market liquidity risk affect expected bond returns. In contrast, exposure to corporate bond liquidity shocks carries an economically negligible risk premium. A simulation study shows that it is unlikely that our results are driven by measurement error in betas or multicollinearity. We present a simple theoretical model that explains these findings.
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We conduct a firm-level analysis of borrowing in US dollars by nonfinancial corporates from outside the United States. We find that emerging market firms with already high cash holdings are more likely to issue US dollar-denominated bonds, especially during periods when the dollar carry trade is more favorable. The proceeds of the dollar bond issuance add to the firm’s cash holdings more than other sources of funds. The evidence points to financial decisions that resemble carry trades, rather than to precautionary borrowing in anticipation of future financing needs.
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This paper revisits the staggered board debate focusing on the long-term association of firm value with changes in board structure. We find no evidence that staggered board changes are negatively related to firm value. However, we find a positive relation for firms engaged in innovation and where stakeholder relationships matter more. This suggests that staggered boards promote value creation for some firms by committing the firm to undertaking long-term projects and bonding it to the relationship-specific investments of its stakeholders. Our results are robust to matching procedures and an exogenous change in Massachusetts corporate law that mandated staggered boards.
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Using distinct features of corporate bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs), I find that financial innovation has a significant and long-term positive valuation impact on the systemically important underlying securities. A one standard deviation increase in ETF ownership reduces high-yield and investment-grade bond spreads by 20.3 and 9.2 basis points, respectively, implying an average monthly price increase of 1.03% and 0.75%. Two novel quasi-natural experiments exploit exogenous changes in ETF eligibility to confirm the effect. Examining theoretical explanations for the effect, I find that ETFs decrease liquidity trader participation, increase institutional ownership, and insignificantly or negatively impact the liquidity of individual bonds.
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I propose a consumption-based asset pricing model with disappointment aversion to investigate the link between downside consumption risk and expected returns across asset markets. I find that the disappointment model can explain 95% of the cross-sectional variation in size/book-to-market portfolios and more than 80% of the variation in the joint sample of stocks, bonds, and commodity futures. I also show that the performance of the disappointment model is comparable to that of the Fama-French three-factor specification, regardless of the sample frequency (annual, quarterly). Overall, my results indicate that disappointment aversion considerably improves the fit of consumption-based asset pricing models.