This paper empirically characterizes relationship lending using data from more than 20,000 loans of a Spanish bank to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study analyzes the pricing determinants of loans to firms based on the entire previous bank-firm relationship, allowing for the...

We investigate how information flows within bank networks facilitate syndicate formation and lending in the leveraged buyout (LBO) market, where relationships between banks and borrowers are scarce and borrower opacity is high. Using novel measures that characterize a bank’s ability to source...

Banking relationships are key factors influencing financing decisions of real estate investment trusts (REITs) that are mandated to hold highly specific assets. Using a comprehensive data set of loan facilities by REITs across different markets, this paper empirically tests the effect of...

During recent years heightened standards for board audit committee membership has been imposed by the SEC, NYSE and others. Sarbanes-Oxley requires that the Audit Committee will be comprised solely of independent directors, and that the company must disclose whether at least one of the members...

The rise of Fintech in the past decade has received growing scholarly attention. This paper surveys Fintech-related articles published in leading finance, accounting, and management journals from 2010 to 2019. It aims to generate a taxonomy of Fintech and accumulate knowledge in the fields of...

Using an agency framework, this paper examines advantages of offering venture capitalists a choice between public equity and loan schemes. Both schemes can be used to promote venture capital investments in hightechnology enterprises since they encourage inexperienced venture capitalists to...

Using a large sample of US public debt issues we show that personal connections between directors of issuing companies and rating agencies result in higher credit ratings. We estimate the average effect to be about one notch. Moreover, our tests indicate that issues by connected firms are 30%...

Credit rating agencies have been widely criticized to issue inflated ratings due to the issuer-pay business model. This paper analyzes the corporate bond rating standards and tests whether reputation concerns are powerful enough to discipline the rating agencies. Through a simple theoretical...

Using a proprietary dataset of private-startup M&A contracts, I study the role of venture capital firms (VCs) in the exit process of startups. I find M&A contracts are significantly less likely to include earnouts, a proxy for the degree of ex-ante information asymmetry between the contracting...

In merger agreements, the seller makes contractual representations and warranties (“reps”) about the state of the target, e.g., attesting to the accuracy of the target’s financial statements. We obtain a proprietary sample of claims for breaches of the reps in acquisition agreements...