Are Firms Underleveraged? An Examination of the Effect of Leverage on Default Probabilities
企业杠杆是否不足?杠杆对违约概率的影响
ABSTRACT A commonly held view in corporate finance is that firms are less leveraged than they should be, given the potentially large tax benefits of debt. In this paper, I study the effect of firms' leverage on default probabilities as represented by the firms' ratings. Using an instrumental variable approach, I find that the leverage's effect on ratings is three times stronger than it is if the endogeneity of leverage is ignored. This stronger effect results in a higher…