This paper presents a dynamic model of the firm with risk-free debt contracts, investment irreversibility, and debt restructuring costs. The model fits several stylized facts of corporate finance and asset pricing: First, book leverage is constant across different book-to-market portfolios,...

The rising stockpile of cash as a share of total assets at U.S. firms has intrigued economists since at least the paper of Bates, Kahle, and Stulz (2006), yet there has been relatively little work on where this cash has come from and how it is related to investment performance. We exploit...

Fama and French (1992) suggest that the positive value premium results from risk of financial distress. However, recent empirical research has found that financially distressed firms have lower stock returns, using empirical estimates of default probabilities. This paper reconciles the positive...

Financial crises are associated with reduced volumes and extreme levels of rates for term inter-bank transactions, such as in one-month and three-month LIBOR markets. We provide an explanation of such stress in term lending by modelling leveraged banks’ precautionary demand for liquidity. When...

By estimating the market premium placed on the small business loan portfolios of banking organizations, this study provides direct evidence on the value to banks arising from relationship lending. Using data from the small business loan survey contained in the June bank call reports, we find...

Remarks by Eric S. Rosengren, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, at the Connecticuct Business & Industry Association and MetroHartford Alliance Economic Summit & Outlook, Hartford, Connecticut, January 6, 2012.

This paper investigates whether small firms have experienced worse tightening of credit conditions during the Great Recession than large firms. To structure the empirical analysis, the paper first develops a simple model of bank loan pricing that derives both the interest rates on loans actually...

The recent relaxation of restrictions on interstate banking and branching, as well as the likely relaxation of Glass-Steagall restrictions, should encourage significant consolidation in the banking industry. Larger lenders, diversified across regions and products, will undoubtedly be less...

Banks, particularly in New England, have experienced major losses of capital as a result of their exposure to risky real estate loans. These losses, accompanied by strict enforcement of capital regulations, have caused banks to shrink their assets in an attempt to improve their capital/asset...