This paper investigates bond market development in Asia by exploring the determinants of firms' decisions to issue public debt in a range of Asian economies. Using a novel database covering the period 1995 to 2007, we use comparable micro level panel of nine countries--China, Hong Kong SAR,...

In this paper we investigate the ability of a number of different ordered probit models to predict ratings based on firm-specific data on business and financial risks. We investigate models which are based on momentum, drift and ageing, and compare them with alternatives which take the initial...

The growth of financial markets has clearly outpaced the development of financial market regulations. With growing complexity in the world of finance and the resultant higher frequency of financial crises, all eyes have shifted toward the current inadequacy of financial regulation. This book...

Empirical investigation of the external finance premium has been conducted on the margin between internal finance and bank borrowing or equities but little attention has been given to corporate bonds, especially for the emerging Asian market. In this paper, we hypothesize that balance sheet...

Empirical investigation of business failures has considered the effects of macroeconomic conditions and financial healthiness in isolation. Using a panel of five Asian economies – Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – over the period 1995–2007 we analyse the link between...

Financing constraints have been found to play an important role in several aspects of firm behavior, but no attention has been given to their effects on credit ratings. In this paper we analyze a unique and comprehensive data set for US firms rated by Fitch over the period 2001–07. We employ...

Focusing on a panel of unlisted firms from transition economies, we observe that only firms facing low irreversibility exhibit high and significant investment-cash flow sensitivities. Our findings provide a new explanation for why some financially constrained firms may exhibit low sensitivities.