Financing Investment: The Choice between Bonds and Bank Loans
48 Pages Posted: 18 Oct 2012 Last revised: 16 May 2014
Date Written: May 15, 2014
Abstract
We build a model of investment and financing decisions to study the choice between bonds and bank loans in a firm's marginal financing decision and its effects on corporate investment. We show that firms with more growth options, higher bargaining power in default, operating in more competitive product markets, and facing lower credit supply are more likely to issue bonds. We also demonstrate that, by changing the cost of financing, these characteristics affect the timing of investment. We test these predictions using a sample of U.S. firms and present new evidence that supports our theory.
Keywords: debt structure, capital structure, investment, credit supply, competition
JEL Classification: D83, G12, G32, G33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation