Using the SEC’s 2016 Tick Size Pilot Program (TSPP) as a natural experiment, we investigate the effects of investors’ information acquisition on equity versus debt financing. We find a significant increase in firms’ preference for equity over debt issuance after the TSPP’s...

Lemmon et al. (2008) show two features of the data on capital structure: convergence and persistence. I replicate their results and then explore the source of the convergence feature. I show that capital structure convergence is likely to be mechanical rather than real. It sources from a...

Credit default swaps (CDSs) are an effective tool to trade credit risk, and they can improve the corporate information environment. We find that firms use more public debt and less bank debt when CDSs reference their debt start trading. The results are robust to the endogeneity of CDS trading....

We examine how executive equity risk-taking incentives affect firms' choice of debt structure. Using a longitudinal sample of U.S. firms, we document that when executive compensation is more sensitive to stock volatility (i.e., has higher vega), firms reduce their reliance on bank debt...