We examine the importance of Big Four audits in reducing agency costs evident in corporate debt maturity worldwide. Analyzing a large sample of public firms from 42 countries reveals that the fraction of long-term debt in firms' capital structures rises with the presence of a Big Four auditor,...

We examine the impact of auditor choice on debt pricing in firms' early public years when they are lesser known. Our evidence suggests that retaining a Big Six auditor, which can reduce debt monitoring costs by enhancing the credibility of financial statements, enables young firms to lower their...

We investigate the influence of national culture on corporate debt maturity choice. Based on the framework of Williamson, we argue that culture located in social embeddedness level can shape contracting environments by serving as an informal constraint that affects human actors’ incentives and...

For a large sample of 48 countries, we find robust evidence that strong creditor rights are associated with low long-term leverage across countries. We further find that strong creditor protection lowers long-term debt issuance, the extent to which investments are financed with long-term debt,...

In this study, we use board reforms across countries as a natural experiment to examine the effect of governance on firm leverage. We find that board reforms are associated with a statistically significant 1 percentage point increase in leverage overall, and a 5 percentage point increase on...