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The Decline of Secured Debt

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  • Efraim Benmelech
  • Nitish Kumar
  • Raghuram Rajan

Abstract

The share of secured debt issued (as a fraction of total corporate debt) declined steadily in the United States over the twentieth century. This stems partly from financial development giving creditors greater confidence that high quality borrowers will respect their claims even if creditors do not obtain security up front. Consequently, such borrowers prefer retaining financial flexibility by not giving security up front. Instead, security is given contingently – when a firm approaches distress. This also explains why superimposed on the secular decline, the share of secured debt issued is countercyclical.

Suggested Citation

  • Efraim Benmelech & Nitish Kumar & Raghuram Rajan, 2020. "The Decline of Secured Debt," NBER Working Papers 26637, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26637
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    7. Nicholas Garvin & David W Hughes & José-Luis Peydró, 2021. "The Role of Collateral in Borrowing," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2021-01, Reserve Bank of Australia.
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    11. Diamond, Douglas W. & Hu, Yunzhi & Rajan, Raghuram G., 2022. "Liquidity, pledgeability, and the nature of lending," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1275-1294.
    12. Campello, Murillo & Connolly, Robert A. & Kankanhalli, Gaurav & Steiner, Eva, 2022. "Do real estate values boost corporate borrowing? Evidence from contract-level data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 611-644.
    13. Benmelech, Efraim & Kumar, Nitish & Rajan, Raghuram, 2022. "The secured credit premium and the issuance of secured debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 143-171.
    14. Efraim Benmelech & Nitish Kumar & Raghuram Rajan, 2020. "Secured Credit Spreads," Working Papers 2020-14, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    15. Song Ma & Joy Tianjiao Tong & Wei Wang, 2022. "Bankrupt Innovative Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6971-6992, September.
    16. Mehdi Beyhaghi, 2022. "Third-Party Credit Guarantees and the Cost of Debt: Evidence from Corporate Loans [Loan guarantees and credit supply]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(2), pages 287-317.
    17. Li, Ying & Li, Lingxiao & Zhu, Bing, 2023. "Executive Compensation and Secured Debt: Evidence from REITs," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277606, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
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    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • N12 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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