The question of whether optimal provision of these services comes mainly from established relationships between banks and client firms or can result from arms'‐length market transactions has been the topic of considerable recent debate. This discussion has paralleled the debate in the...

The abnormal decline in the number of US public firms is often blamed on merger activity, private equity investments, and stock market regulations. We compare the effects of these channels in a unified framework. In the US, an extra 100 mergers is associated with 41.56 additional missing public...

We study the relation between state ownership and cash holdings in China's share-issue privatized firms from 2000 to 2012. We find that the level of cash holdings increases as state ownership declines. For the average firm in our sample, a 10 percentage-point decline in state ownership leads to...

This paper summarizes research examining how privatization programs implemented by governments over the past three decades have changed the size and efficiency of global financial markets, altered the practice of corporate finance in economies that experienced large privatizations, and impacted...

In this study, we employ the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) data collected in 2002, 2005, and 2009 for 21,499 firms from 27 Eastern European and Central Asian countries to examine firm-level growth constraints faced by privatized firms versus those faced by the originally (de novo) private...

The abnormal decline in the number of US public firms is often blamed on mergers, private equity, and stock market regulations. We compare and quantify the effects of these channels in a unified framework. In the US, an extra 100 mergers is associated with 22.01 additional missing public firms,...

Using a sample of 2477 privatizations from 108 countries that raised $1.2 trillion between 1977 and 2000, we analyze the choice between raising funds in public versus private capital markets. This choice is influenced by capital market, political, and firm-specific factors. Share issue...

We examine certification by lead arrangers of project finance (PF) syndicated loans, because PF vehicle companies are stand-alone entities, created for a single purpose, with all valuation impacts contained in the project financing package. Using a sample of 4,122 project finance loans, worth...

We examine certification by lead arrangers of project finance (PF) syndicated loans, because PF vehicle companies are stand-alone entities, created for a single purpose, with all valuation impacts contained in the project financing package. Using a sample of 4,122 project finance loans, worth...