We study trading costs and dealer behavior in U.S. corporate bond markets from 2006 to 2016. Despite a temporary spike during the financial crisis, average trade execution costs have not increased notably over time. However, alternative measures, including dealer capital commitment over various...

After conducting the first study of secondary trading in structured credit products, the authors report that the majority of products did not trade even once during the 21-month sample. Execution costs averaged 24 bps when trades occurred and were considerably higher for products with a greater...

We find that to mitigate refinancing risk caused by shorter maturity debt, firms increase their cash holdings and save more cash from their cash flows. We also document that the maturity of U.S. firms' long-term debt has markedly shortened over the 1980-2008 period and that this shortening...

We study corporate bond offerings, including underwriting syndicate structure, primary placement transactions, and secondary market outcomes. Syndicate structure and allocations vary with issue complexity and risk, and across investment grade and high yield issues. The syndicate...

We examine the relation between the management of cash holdings and corporate governance. We find that firms with weaker corporate governance have smaller cash reserves. Further tests suggest that these firms dissipate their cash reserves more quickly than do managers of firms with stronger...

We examine the relation between auditor characteristics (quality and tenure) and the cost of debt financing. Consistent with the hypothesis that audit characteristics are important to the capital markets, we find that (i) auditor quality and tenure are negatively and significantly related to the...

Studies of stock mutual funds find little evidence of persistence in performance. The most common interpretation for such limited persistence is that dispersion in performance is driven largely by managers' luck. However, Berk and Green (2004) contend that managers are skilled and limited...

We examine the relation between auditor characteristics (quality and tenure) and the cost of debt financing. Consistent with the hypothesis that audit characteristics are important to the capital markets, we find that (i) auditor quality and tenure are negatively and significantly related to the...

The U.S. corporate bond market underwent a fundamental change with the introduction of TRACE in 2002. Beginning on that date, bond dealers were required to report all trades in publicly-issued corporate bonds to the National Association of Security Dealers, which in turn made transaction data...

We examine the relation between the management of cash holdings and corporate governance. Using governance metrics based on antitakeover provisions and inside ownership, we find that firms with weaker corporate governance structures have smaller cash reserves. When distributing cash to...