Author : Ivan T. Ivanov
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (813 download)
Book Synopsis Essays on Debt Financing and Financial Distress by : Ivan T. Ivanov
Download or read book Essays on Debt Financing and Financial Distress written by Ivan T. Ivanov and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In my first essay I investigate the role of pricing contingencies (performance pricing) in bank loan renegotiation. My results suggest that the primary role of performance pricing in bank debt contracts is to delay costly renegotiation. This effect is concentrated in long-term loans, indicating that the renegotiation reduction benefits of pricing grids are larger for long maturities. For instance, a five-year loan with a pricing grid is refinanced for pricing-related reasons on average a year later than a similar loan without such a provision. Since the average time to renegotiation of a five-year loan is roughly 2.5 years, performance pricing allows for substantial savings in contracting costs for non-opaque borrowers. My results also suggest that performance pricing reduces the probability of spread-decreasing outcomes, while having no effect on other types of renegotiation. Thus, pricing grids are most valuable in delaying re-contracting when the credit quality of the borrower improves. In my second essay (joint work with Matt Gustafson and John Ritter), we provide empirical evidence on the peculiar dynamics by which firms in the airline industry perform aggregate price adjustments and argue why these fare hikes represent tacit collusion. After using weather instruments to account for endogeneity in our capacity measures, we find that negative changes (and low levels of) both short-term liquidity and idle capacity lead to increases in the probability of collusive actions. In addition, we find that these effects are complementary such that liquidity constraints cause firms to hike only when idle capacity is low, but have the opposite effect when idle capacity is high. In my third essay I use a unique data set of quarterly credit line use to show that credit commitments are used as bridge financing for investment because maintaining sufficient financial flexibility is a first-order consideration for firms' investment policy. The majority of sample firms repay large drawdowns made for investment purposes within three to four quarters, mostly with permanent capital such as bonds or equity. At the refinancing point these firms have approximately 40% of credit lines available for future use, pointing to the large economic significance of maintaining sufficient financial flexibility. I further find that the speed of credit line repayment is positively associated with future acquisitions. The positive and significant association between future acquisitions and the repayment hazard suggests that firms create available capacity under their credit lines to do additional acquisitions in subsequent quarters. Overall, these findings provide a partial explanation for the puzzling result in Graham and Harvey (2001) that the most important determinant of debt policy is maintaining financial flexibility"--Leaves v-vi.