IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlawec/v52y2009i4p701-717.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Creditor Protection Laws and the Cost of Debt

Author

Listed:
  • Sattar A. Mansi
  • William F. Maxwell
  • John K. Wald

Abstract

We examine the impact of state payout restrictions on firms' credit ratings and bond yields. Using publicly traded bond data for a sample of large firms, we find that firms incorporated in states with more restrictive payout statutes (for example, New York and California) have better credit ratings and significantly lower yield spreads (about 8.7 percent) than do firms incorporated in less restrictive states (for example, Delaware). These results suggest that incorporation in a more restrictive state provides a credible commitment mechanism for avoiding some of the moral hazard problems associated with long-term debt. This commitment corresponds to an economically and statistically significant difference in market yields and firm-financing costs and is robust to controls for ownership, governance, debt type, Delaware or non-Delaware incorporation, and covenant usage. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that Delaware incorporation has hidden costs for some firms. (c) 2009 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

Suggested Citation

  • Sattar A. Mansi & William F. Maxwell & John K. Wald, 2009. "Creditor Protection Laws and the Cost of Debt," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(4), pages 701-717, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:v:52:y:2009:i:4:p:701-717
    DOI: 10.1086/605566
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/605566
    File Function: link to full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/605566?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    2. Klock, Mark S. & Mansi, Sattar A. & Maxwell, William F., 2005. "Does Corporate Governance Matter to Bondholders?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 693-719, December.
    3. Lucian Arye Bebchuk & Allen Ferrell, 2001. "A New Approach to Takeover Law and Regulatory Competition," NBER Working Papers 8148, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. DeAngelo, Harry & Masulis, Ronald W., 1980. "Optimal capital structure under corporate and personal taxation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 3-29, March.
    5. Daines, Robert, 2001. "Does Delaware law improve firm value?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 525-558, December.
    6. Sattar A. Mansi & William F. Maxwell & Darius P. Miller, 2004. "Does Auditor Quality and Tenure Matter to Investors? Evidence from the Bond Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(4), pages 755-793, September.
    7. Wald, John K. & Long, Michael S., 2007. "The effect of state laws on capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 297-319, February.
    8. Anderson, Ronald C. & Mansi, Sattar A. & Reeb, David M., 2003. "Founding family ownership and the agency cost of debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 263-285, May.
    9. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    10. repec:bla:jfinan:v:58:y:2003:i:2:p:895-920 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    12. Paul Gompers & Joy Ishii & Andrew Metrick, 2003. "Corporate Governance and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 107-156.
    13. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    14. Carlos A. Molina, 2005. "Are Firms Underleveraged? An Examination of the Effect of Leverage on Default Probabilities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1427-1459, June.
    15. Bebchuk, Lucian Arye & Cohen, Alma, 2003. "Firms' Decisions Where to Incorporate," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 383-425, October.
    16. Dhillon, Upinder S & Johnson, Herb, 1994. "The Effect of Dividend Changes on Stock and Bond Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 281-289, March.
    17. Oren Bar-Gill & Michal Barzuza & Lucian Bebchuk, 2006. "The Market for Corporate Law," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 162(1), pages 134-160, March.
    18. Sattar A. Mansi & David M. Reeb, 2002. "Corporate Diversification: What Gets Discounted?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2167-2183, October.
    19. William F. Maxwell & Clifford P. Stephens, 2003. "The Wealth Effects of Repurchases on Bondholders," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 895-919, April.
    20. Guhan Subramanian, 2004. "The Disappearing Delaware Effect," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 32-59, April.
    21. Kenneth Ayotte & David Skeel, "undated". "Why Do Distressed Companies Choose Delaware? An Empirical Analysis of Venue Choice in Bankruptcy," Scholarship at Penn Law upenn_wps-1023, University of Pennsylvania Law School.
    22. Yaxuan Qi & John Wald, 2008. "State Laws and Debt Covenants," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(1), pages 179-207, February.
    23. Lucian Bebchuk & Alma Cohen & Allen Ferrell, 2002. "Does the Evidence Favor State Competition in Corporate Law?," NBER Working Papers 9380, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. McConnell, John J. & Servaes, Henri, 1990. "Additional evidence on equity ownership and corporate value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 595-612, October.
    25. Nelson, Charles R & Siegel, Andrew F, 1987. "Parsimonious Modeling of Yield Curves," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 473-489, October.
    26. Heron, Randall A. & Lewellen, Wilbur G., 1998. "An Empirical Analysis of the Reincorporation Decision," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(4), pages 549-568, December.
    27. K.J. Martijn Cremers & Vinay B. Nair & Chenyang Wei, 2007. "Governance Mechanisms and Bond Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1359-1388, 2007 07.
    28. Jordan, James V. & Mansi, Sattar A., 2003. "Term structure estimation from on-the-run Treasuries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 1487-1509, August.
    29. Romano, Roberta, 1985. "Law as a Product: Some Pieces of the Incorporation Puzzle," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 225-283, Fall.
    30. Nash, Robert C. & Netter, Jeffry M. & Poulsen, Annette B., 2003. "Determinants of contractual relations between shareholders and bondholders: investment opportunities and restrictive covenants," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 201-232, March.
    31. Smith, Clifford Jr. & Warner, Jerold B., 1979. "On financial contracting : An analysis of bond covenants," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 117-161, June.
    32. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giofré, Maela/M., 2009. "Investor protection and foreign stakeholders," MPRA Paper 20238, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jan 2010.
    2. Reisel, Natalia, 2014. "On the value of restrictive covenants: Empirical investigation of public bond issues," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 251-268.
    3. Aguir, Iness & Burns, Natasha & Mansi, Sattar A. & Wald, John K., 2014. "Liability protection, director compensation, and incentives," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 570-589.
    4. Jagannathan, Murali & Pritchard, A.C., 2017. "Do Delaware CEOs get fired?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 85-101.
    5. Giofré, Maela, 2013. "Investor protection rights and foreign investment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 506-526.
    6. Khalil, Samer & Mansi, Sattar & Mazboudi, Mohamad & Zhang, Andrew (Jianzhong), 2019. "Information asymmetry and the wealth appropriation effect in the bond market: Evidence from late disclosures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 49-61.
    7. Eidenmüller, Horst & Engert, Andreas & Hornuf, Lars, 2015. "Where do firms issue debt? An empirical analysis of issuer location and regulatory competition in Europe," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 103-115.
    8. Servaes, Henri & Amiraslani, Hami & Lins, Karl & Tamayo, Ane, 2017. "A Matter of Trust? The Bond Market Benefits of Corporate Social Capital during the Financial Crisis," CEPR Discussion Papers 12321, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Hami Amiraslani & Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2023. "Trust, social capital, and the bond market benefits of ESG performance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 421-462, June.
    10. Mansi, Sattar A. & Wald, John K. & Zhang, Andrew (Jianzhong), 2016. "Severance agreements and the cost of debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 426-444.
    11. Mark Wallis, 2021. "The effects of relaxing Australia’s statutory dividend restrictions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 3685-3733, June.
    12. John Wald & Sattar Mansi & Anh Nguyen, 2012. "Golden Parachutes, Incentives, and the Cost of Debt," Working Papers 0008, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    13. Colleen Honigsberg & Sharon P. Katz & Sunay Mutlu & Gil Sadka, 2021. "State contract law and the use of accounting information in debt contracts," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 124-171, March.
    14. Liu, Yixin & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2010. "The effect of CEO power on bond ratings and yields," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 744-762, September.
    15. Bradley, Michael & Chen, Dong, 2011. "Corporate governance and the cost of debt: Evidence from director limited liability and indemnification provisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 83-107, February.
    16. Vivian M. van Breemen & Frank J. Fabozzi & Mike Nawas & Dennis Vink, 2024. "Creditor protection and credit ratings in the US RMBS market," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(3), pages 267-292, August.
    17. Colleen Honigsberg & Sharon Katz & Gil Sadka, 2014. "State Contract Law and Debt Contracts," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(4), pages 1031-1061.
    18. Ballester, Laura & González-Urteaga, Ana & Martínez, Beatriz, 2020. "The role of internal corporate governance mechanisms on default risk: A systematic review for different institutional settings," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & John, Kose & Waisman, Maya, 2010. "The effect of state antitakeover laws on the firm's bondholders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 127-154, April.
    2. Reisel, Natalia, 2014. "On the value of restrictive covenants: Empirical investigation of public bond issues," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 251-268.
    3. Yaxuan Qi & John Wald, 2008. "State Laws and Debt Covenants," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(1), pages 179-207, February.
    4. Zhang, Xinde & Zhou, Simiao, 2018. "Bond covenants and institutional blockholding," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 136-152.
    5. John Wald & Sattar Mansi & Anh Nguyen, 2012. "Golden Parachutes, Incentives, and the Cost of Debt," Working Papers 0008, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    6. Waisman, Maya, 2013. "Product market competition and the cost of bank loans: Evidence from state antitakeover laws," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 4721-4737.
    7. Huang, Kershen & Petkevich, Alex, 2016. "Corporate bond pricing and ownership heterogeneity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 54-74.
    8. Bebchuk, Lucian Arye & Cohen, Alma, 2003. "Firms' Decisions Where to Incorporate," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 383-425, October.
    9. Roberts, Gordon & Yuan, Lianzeng (Edward), 2010. "Does institutional ownership affect the cost of bank borrowing?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 62(6), pages 604-626, November.
    10. Pornsit Jiraporn & Pandej Chintrakarn & Jang-Chul Kim & Yixin Liu, 2013. "Exploring the Agency Cost of Debt: Evidence from the ISS Governance Standards," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 44(2), pages 205-227, October.
    11. Chen, Dong, 2012. "Classified boards, the cost of debt, and firm performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 3346-3365.
    12. John Wald & Yaxuan Qi & Lukas Roth, 2009. "How Laws Affect Contracts: Evidence from Yankee Bond Covenants," Working Papers 0065, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    13. Anne Anderson & Jill Brown & Parveen P. Gupta, 2017. "Jurisdictional competition for corporate charters and firm value: a reexamination of the Delaware effect," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(4), pages 341-356, November.
    14. Lugo, Stefano, 2019. "Insider ownership and the cost of debt capital: Evidence from bank loans," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 357-368.
    15. Oren Bar-Gill & Michal Barzuza & Lucian Bebchuk, 2006. "The Market for Corporate Law," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 162(1), pages 134-160, March.
    16. Liu, Yukun & Wu, Xi, 2023. "How does shareholder governance affect the cost of borrowing? Evidence from the passage of anti-takeover provisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2).
    17. Mansi, Sattar A. & Qi, Yaxuan & Wald, John K., 2021. "Bond covenants, bankruptcy risk, and the cost of debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. Goergen, Marc & Renneboog, Luc, 2008. "Contractual corporate governance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 166-182, June.
    19. Hong Li & Yuan Wang, 2016. "How do Corporate Governance Decisions Affect Bondholders?," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(03), pages 1-23, September.
    20. Ge, Wenxia & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Song, Byron Y., 2012. "Internal governance, legal institutions and bank loan contracting around the world," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 413-432.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:v:52:y:2009:i:4:p:701-717. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.