Legal Environment and Corporate Bonds: The Primal Role of Information
44 Pages Posted: 6 Jan 2019 Last revised: 5 Jul 2019
Date Written: April 23, 2019
Abstract
This paper appraises the relative impact of creditor information and creditor rights on corporate bond issues. I employ a large panel of 3,969 bond issuers from 54 countries, between 2013 and 2017. I constantly find that an increase in creditor information is associated with an increase in the amounts of bonds issued. On the opposite, I document a very limited impact of creditor protection. Considering both simultaneously, only the positive impact of information persists, supporting a primal role of information on bond markets. I show that the positive effect of information originates from both the supply- and demand-side of the bond market, with lower coupon rates, less restrictive covenants, longer maturities and more frequent issues. I further document how creditor information alleviates issues stemming from firm’s opacity and firm’s risk. Results are robust to different specifications and robustness tests.
Keywords: Corporate Bonds, Creditor Information, Creditor Rights, Supply and Demand Side, Firm Opacity, Firm Risk
JEL Classification: G10, G32, K40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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