We develop a framework to measure the severity of financial constraints for young firms across countries. Using ORBIS balance-sheet data for 23 economies, we show that short-term leverage rises while long-term leverage falls early in firms' life cycles, with this pattern persisting longer where...

This paper examines the incidence and determinants of credit rationing and borrower discouragement among Kenyan SMEs using firmlevel data from the 2018 World Bank Enterprise Survey. Only about onequarter of firms report no financing obstacles, while the majority face constraints of varying...

Financial literacy represents a fundamental competence in contemporary knowledge-based economies, particularly in the context of increasingly complex corporate financing instruments. Insufficient financial literacy may lead to suboptimal debt decisions, inefficient capital structures, and...

This study investigates the impacts of geopolitical risks on corporate leverage decisions of Vietnamese listed firms from 2017 to 2024. The research findings reveal a negative impact of geopolitical risks on both corporate leverage and short-term leverage. That is, Vietnamese listed firms...

This paper constructs a novel firm-level measure of geopolitical risk using textual analysis of 130,061 earnings conference call transcripts and examines its impact on firms' reliance on bank-based financing. Using a panel of 4,692 listed firms across 38 countries over 2005-2024, we find that...

We describe a novel mechanism via which multinational enterprises (MNEs) can serve to propagate productivity and credit supply shocks across borders. We augment the costly-state-verification model of Bernanke et al. [1999] with the internal capital market constraint of an MNE to analyze the...

Objective: This study investigates the impact of internationalisation on the indebtedness of construction companies in the Americas. We measured internationalisation as the share of exports in total revenues, reflecting a firm's engagement in cross-border sales. Research Design & Methods: The...

Utilising data from the selected companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and using the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) specifically employing the Pooled Mean Group approach, this study examines the cointegrating and causal relationships among firm liquidity, performance...

With the enactment of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in 2016, India reformed and unified its fragmented insolvency frameworks into a single comprehensive law designed to prioritize asset maximization and ensure time-bound resolutions. Through a quasi-experimental setting, we examine...

Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) are crucial drivers of economic growth. In Kenya, MSMEs represent about 98 percent of all businesses and contribute over 30 percent to the GDP. Despite their essential role in the economy, these enterprises face substantial challenges in...

Household debt is a critical component of family financial management, especially considering the prevalence of credit constraints. This study investigates the determinants of Chinese household debt structure, focusing on the choice between formal and informal borrowing and the proportion of...

The survey is based on feedback concerning the economic situation from April to September 2024, collected from 16,000 European businesses, gathered through interviews carried out from September to October 2024. Over 92% of these businesses are SMEs, coming from EU27 as well as Iceland,...

Purpose - This paper takes the Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect as a quasi-natural experiment and investigates the impact of capital market liberalization on the corporate debt maturity structure. It also aims to provide some policy implications for corporate debt financing and further...

This study examines the role of board gender diversity in shaping cor‑ porate financial decisions, particularly in terms of debt structure and risk management. Focusing on the Tehran Stock Exchange, it explores how female representation on boards influences long‑term and short‑term...

This study investigates the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investments on corporate debt financing (CDF) in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) economies throughout 2010 to 2022. A central aspect of this research is the moderating role of financial...

The choice between short- and long-term debt impacts a firm's financial flexibility and its capacity for sustainable investment. This study examines how Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and main bank relationships shape debt maturity structures, focusing on Japanese firms listed on the Tokyo...

This study investigates the interdependencies between debt capital and dividend policy as complementary factors influencing firm value among corporations listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI). Using Tobin's Q as a firm value metric and employing robust econometric techniques...

This paper investigates the firm-level determinants of debt policy in private family SMEs. It employs a comparative analysis of two sub-samples of family and non-family SMEs using panel data from 200 Moroccan SMEs over the period from 2018 to 2022. The findings reveal that family SMEs adopt a...

To what extent can private firms' external equity substitute for debt financing in a banking crisis? To answer this question, I use firm-level data and firm-bank linkages to estimate the causal effect of an imported lending cut from a large German bank on firms' capital structure and real...

We examine the relationship between capital structure and carbon intensity in manufacturing firms using a novel dataset that combines information from the EU Emission Trading System with firm-level financial accounts. Our findings indicate that higher financial leverage is associated with lower...

Institutional investors increasingly value alternative assets in strategic asset allocation, with private debt emerging as a key asset class. However, its shortage of market history has hindered the development of standardized proxy benchmarks. For that, many institutional investors still do not...

Debt financing is important for financing major investments in the biopharmaceutical industry. Debt financing allows companies to raise funds without giving up ownership or control through indenture and covenants of the company. In this study, I analyze the effects of debt financing decisions on...

This study investigates whether, and to what extent, dividend-paying firms follow pecking order behavior when altering their capital structure. Using a panel of 3173 U.S. firms from 1960 to 2020 (49,424 firm-year observations), we examine four financing activities: equity and debt issuance under...

Tax havens represent the largest financing hub for financial institutions. For banks, they account for more than 20% of all cross-borders banking debt worldwide. Yet, our understanding of the underlying drivers remains limited. Drawing on a unique global dataset covering major international...

Global financial conditions (GFC) considerably influence emerging markets (EM) firm dynamics. Albeit a vast literature on the vulnerability of EM firms to GFC, no study assesses the sensitivity of EM firm credit risk to GFC by looking at the sensitivity of borrowing spreads of EM firms to GFC....