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...

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,...

Research on capital structure and product market interactions shows that high leverage is associated with substantial losses in market share due to unfavorable actions by customers and competitors. We examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects firms' interactions with...

We provide the first firm-level evidence of the relation between state ownership and debt structure. Using an international sample of newly privatized firms (NPFs) from 76 countries over the 1998–2017 period, we find that state ownership is associated with a more diversified debt structure....