We develop a framework to measure the severity of financial constraints for young firms across countries. Using ORBIS balance-sheet data for 23 economies, we show that short-term leverage rises while long-term leverage falls early in firms' life cycles, with this pattern persisting longer where...

This study investigates the impacts of geopolitical risks on corporate leverage decisions of Vietnamese listed firms from 2017 to 2024. The research findings reveal a negative impact of geopolitical risks on both corporate leverage and short-term leverage. That is, Vietnamese listed firms...

This paper constructs a novel firm-level measure of geopolitical risk using textual analysis of 130,061 earnings conference call transcripts and examines its impact on firms' reliance on bank-based financing. Using a panel of 4,692 listed firms across 38 countries over 2005-2024, we find that...