The extant literature suggests that one of the main causes of the recent financial crisis has been the excessive use of short-term debt by banks [Gorton and Metrick (2012a, b)]. Using a large sample of banks we find that increases in repurchase agreements (repos) was recognized by external...

Are all covenants equally effective at reducing the bondholder-shareholder conflict? Examining the most frequently used bond covenants, we document that four out of 24 restrictions are associated with significantly higher bankruptcy risk. The use of these Default Indicating covenants can be...