IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/17521.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Recovery Rates and Macroeconomic Conditions: The Role of Loan Covenants

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Zhipeng

Abstract

For U.S. firms from 1988 to 2007, firms with stricter loan covenants had higher firm-level default recovery rates. Covenants were stricter, moreover, when set during downturns in the business cycle. This implies a negative dependence of recovery rates on lagged macroeconomic conditions. That is, bank loan contracts established in economic recessions have tight covenants, leading later to higher recovery rates. My empirical evidence suggests that private creditors have significant influence on firms' bankruptcy decisions through the channel of covenants in debt contracts.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Zhipeng, 2009. "Recovery Rates and Macroeconomic Conditions: The Role of Loan Covenants," MPRA Paper 17521, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:17521
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/17521/1/MPRA_paper_17521.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patrick Bolton & Xavier Freixas, 2006. "Corporate Finance and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 829-870.
    2. Ricardo J. Caballero & Arvind Krishnamurthy, 2008. "Collective Risk Management in a Flight to Quality Episode," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2195-2230, October.
    3. Duffie, Darrell & Saita, Leandro & Wang, Ke, 2007. "Multi-period corporate default prediction with stochastic covariates," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 635-665, March.
    4. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1992. "Liquidation Values and Debt Capacity: A Market Equilibrium Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1343-1366, September.
    5. Cantillo, Miguel & Wright, Julian, 2000. "How Do Firms Choose Their Lenders? An Empirical Investigation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(1), pages 155-189.
    6. Asea, Patrick K. & Blomberg, Brock, 1998. "Lending cycles," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1-2), pages 89-128.
    7. Raghuram G. Rajan, 1994. "Why Bank Credit Policies Fluctuate: A Theory and Some Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 399-441.
    8. Acharya, Viral V. & Bharath, Sreedhar T. & Srinivasan, Anand, 2007. "Does industry-wide distress affect defaulted firms? Evidence from creditor recoveries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 787-821, September.
    9. Cem Demiroglu & Christopher M. James, 2010. "The Information Content of Bank Loan Covenants," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(10), pages 3700-3737, October.
    10. Cara S. Lown & Donald P. Morgan & Sonali Rohatgi, 2000. "Listening to loan officers: the impact of commercial credit standards on lending and output," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Jul, pages 1-16.
    11. Grenadier, Steven R. & Hall, Brian J., 1996. "Risk-based capital standards and the riskiness of bank portfolios: Credit and factor risks," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3-4), pages 433-464, June.
    12. Merton, Robert C, 1974. "On the Pricing of Corporate Debt: The Risk Structure of Interest Rates," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 449-470, May.
    13. Edward I. Altman & Brooks Brady & Andrea Resti & Andrea Sironi, 2005. "The Link between Default and Recovery Rates: Theory, Empirical Evidence, and Implications," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(6), pages 2203-2228, November.
    14. Joseph G. Haubrich & Paul Wachtel, 1993. "Capital requirements and shifts in commercial bank portfolios," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 29(Q III), pages 2-15.
    15. Gertner, Robert & Scharfstein, David, 1991. "A Theory of Workouts and the Effects of Reorganization Law," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1189-1222, September.
    16. Berlin, Mitchell & Loeys, Jan, 1988. " Bond Covenants and Delegated Monitoring," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 43(2), pages 397-412, June.
    17. G. B. Gorton & Ping He, 2008. "Bank Credit Cycles," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(4), pages 1181-1214.
    18. Giovanni Dell'Ariccia & Robert Marquez, 2006. "Lending Booms and Lending Standards," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(5), pages 2511-2546, October.
    19. Ram T. S. Ramakrishnan & Anjan V. Thakor, 1984. "Information Reliability and a Theory of Financial Intermediation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 415-432.
    20. Skander J. van den Heuvel, 2002. "Does bank capital matter for monetary transmission?," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 8(May), pages 259-265.
    21. Mark S. Carey & Michael B. Gordy, 2007. "The bank as grim reaper: debt composition and recoveries on defaulted debt," Proceedings 1056, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    22. Kahan, Marcel & Tuckman, Bruce, 1993. "Do Bondholders Lose from Junk Bond Covenant Changes," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(4), pages 499-516, October.
    23. Boyd, John H. & Prescott, Edward C., 1986. "Financial intermediary-coalitions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 211-232, April.
    24. Roberts, Michael R. & Sufi, Amir, 2009. "Renegotiation of financial contracts: Evidence from private credit agreements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 159-184, August.
    25. Craig Furfine, 2001. "Bank Portfolio Allocation: The Impact of Capital Requirements, Regulatory Monitoring, and Economic Conditions," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 20(1), pages 33-56, September.
    26. Nini, Greg & Smith, David C. & Sufi, Amir, 2009. "Creditor control rights and firm investment policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 400-420, June.
    27. Steven Drucker & Manju Puri, 2009. "On Loan Sales, Loan Contracting, and Lending Relationships," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(7), pages 2635-2672, July.
    28. Gambacorta, Leonardo & Mistrulli, Paolo Emilio, 2004. "Does bank capital affect lending behavior?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 436-457, October.
    29. Martin Ruckes, 2004. "Bank Competition and Credit Standards," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 1073-1102.
    30. Michael R. Roberts & Amir Sufi, 2009. "Financial Contracting: A Survey of Empirical Research and Future Directions," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 207-226, November.
    31. Black, Fischer & Scholes, Myron S, 1973. "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 637-654, May-June.
    32. Michael R. Roberts & Amir Sufi, 2009. "Control Rights and Capital Structure: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1657-1695, August.
    33. Düllmann, Klaus & Trapp, Monika, 2004. "Systematic Risk in Recovery Rates: An Empirical Analysis of US Corporate Credit Exposures," Discussion Paper Series 2: Banking and Financial Studies 2004,02, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    34. Amir Sufi, 2009. "Bank Lines of Credit in Corporate Finance: An Empirical Analysis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1057-1088, March.
    35. Amir Sufi, 2009. "Bank Lines of Credit in Corporate Finance: An Empirical Analysis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1057-1088.
    36. Rajan, Raghuram & Winton, Andrew, 1995. "Covenants and Collateral as Incentives to Monitor," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1113-1146, September.
    37. James, Christopher, 1996. "Bank Debt Restructurings and the Composition of Exchange Offers in Financial Distress," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(2), pages 711-727, June.
    38. Houston, Joel & James, Christopher, 1996. "Bank Information Monopolies and the Mix of Private and Public Debt Claims," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(5), pages 1863-1889, December.
    39. Lang, William W. & Nakamura, Leonard I., 1995. "'Flight to quality' in banking and economic activity," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 145-164, August.
    40. Sreedhar T. Bharath & Tyler Shumway, 2008. "Forecasting Default with the Merton Distance to Default Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 1339-1369, May.
    41. John A. Weinberg, 1995. "Cycles in lending standards?," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Sum, pages 1-18.
    42. 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.
    43. 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.
    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. Hu, Yunzhi, 2022. "A dynamic theory of bank lending, firm entry, and investment fluctuations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    2. Nada Mora, 2015. "Lender Exposure and Effort in the Syndicated Loan Market," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 82(1), pages 205-252, March.
    3. Zhang, Zhipeng, 2009. "Who Pulls the Plug? Theory and Evidence on Corporate Bankruptcy Decisions," MPRA Paper 17676, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Oct 2009.
    4. Liu, Wenchien & Miu, Peter & Chang, Yuanchen & Ozdemir, Bogie, 2012. "Information asymmetry and bank regulation: Can the spread of debt contracts be explained by recovery rates?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 123-150.
    5. Isil Erel & Brandon Julio & Woojin Kim & Michael S. Weisbach, 2012. "Macroeconomic Conditions and Capital Raising," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 341-376.
    6. Khieu, Hinh D. & Mullineaux, Donald J. & Yi, Ha-Chin, 2012. "The determinants of bank loan recovery rates," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 923-933.
    7. Achleitner, Ann-Kristin & Braun, Reiner & Tappeiner, Florian, 2009. "Structure and determinants of financial covenants in leveraged buyouts - evidence from an economy with strong creditor rights," CEFS Working Paper Series 2009-15, Technische Universität München (TUM), Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS).
    8. Jean Helwege & Jing-Zhi Huang & Yuan Wang, 2017. "Debt Covenants and Cross-Sectional Equity Returns," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1835-1854, June.
    9. Nazemi, Abdolreza & Fabozzi, Frank J., 2018. "Macroeconomic variable selection for creditor recovery rates," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 14-25.
    10. Akdoğu, Evrim & Paukowits, Aysun Alp & Celikyurt, Ugur, 2023. "Bondholder governance, takeover likelihood, and division of gains," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Anna Watson, 2019. "Financial Frictions, the Great Trade Collapse and International Trade over the Business Cycle," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 19-64, February.

    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. Zhang, Zhipeng, 2009. "Who Pulls the Plug? Theory and Evidence on Corporate Bankruptcy Decisions," MPRA Paper 17676, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Oct 2009.
    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. Isin, Adnan Anil, 2018. "Tax avoidance and cost of debt: The case for loan-specific risk mitigation and public debt financing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 344-378.
    4. Devos, Erik & Rahman, Shofiqur & Tsang, Desmond, 2017. "Debt covenants and the speed of capital structure adjustment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-18.
    5. Peter R. Demerjian, 2017. "Uncertainty and debt covenants," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1156-1197, September.
    6. Roberts, Michael R. & Sufi, Amir, 2009. "Renegotiation of financial contracts: Evidence from private credit agreements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 159-184, August.
    7. Demiroglu, Cem & James, Christopher, 2011. "The use of bank lines of credit in corporate liquidity management: A review of empirical evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 775-782, April.
    8. Duran, Miguel A., 2022. "The risk–return relation in the corporate loan market," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    9. Gorton, Gary & Winton, Andrew, 2003. "Financial intermediation," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 431-552, Elsevier.
    10. Nini, Greg & Smith, David C. & Sufi, Amir, 2009. "Creditor control rights and firm investment policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 400-420, June.
    11. Sandrine Docgne, 2022. "Bond covenants and investment policy," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 551-578, September.
    12. Ovtchinnikov, Alexei V., 2016. "Debt decisions in deregulated industries," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 230-254.
    13. Wenlian Gao & Feifei Zhu & Kai Chen, 2023. "The role of bank lenders in firm leverage adjustments," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 46(1), pages 63-97, February.
    14. Carey, Mark & Gordy, Michael B., 2021. "The bank as Grim Reaper: Debt composition and bankruptcy thresholds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(3), pages 1092-1108.
    15. Nishant Dass & Vikram Nanda & Qinghai Wang, 2020. "Within‐syndicate conflicts, loan covenants, and syndicate formation," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(2), pages 547-583, June.
    16. Freudenberg, Felix & Imbierowicz, Björn & Saunders, Anthony & Steffen, Sascha, 2017. "Covenant violations and dynamic loan contracting," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 540-565.
    17. Lockhart, G. Brandon, 2014. "Credit lines and leverage adjustments," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 274-288.
    18. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    19. Albring, Susan M. & Khurana, Inder K. & Nejadmalayeri, Ali & Pereira, Raynolde, 2011. "Managerial compensation and the debt placement decision," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 1445-1456.
    20. Wang, Jing, 2017. "Debt covenant design and creditor control rights: Evidence from the tightest covenant," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 331-352.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Recovery rate; Bankruptcy; Loan covenant; Creditor control; Business cycle;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:17521. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.