Investor protection is associated with greater investment-sensitivity to q and lower investment-sensitivity to cash flow. Finance plays a role in causing these effects; in countries with strong investor protection external finance increases more strongly with q, and declines more strongly with...

The recent financial crisis highlights the importance of understanding how financial market conditions impact the real economy. We ask whether access to external finance typically varies over time, and if so what the effects are on investment and employment. Consistent with time-varying external...

Legal investor protection is associated with how firms choose to issue shares. The likelihood of private placements relative to rights offerings increases with investor protection, as does the likelihood of public offerings relative to both private placements and rights offerings. These findings...

We analyze capital structure decisions of U.S. firms during 1905-1924, a period characterized by two shocks that provide a unique experiment for studying the primary determinants of financing choices: (i) the introduction of corporate and individual taxes, and (ii) the onset of World War I,...