Possession of strategic assets is a necessary condition for sustained competitive advantage. This condition is, however, not sufficient. Firms require financial management capability to realize the rents present in their strategic assets. The firm-specific nature of strategic assets implies that they be financed primarily through equity; other less specific assets should be financed through deb...

The debt overhang problem is shown to arise in the context of an entrepreneurial project that requires a sequence of investments financed by an outside lender. The entrepreneur, not internalizing losses accruing to the lender which financed the initial investments, may inefficiently cancel the project and instead pursue an outside opportunity. It is shown that loan commitments (contracts that a...

We review and extend recent contingent claims models of capital structure. We focus on two models with analytic formulas in perpetual horizonLeland (1994) and Mauer and Sarkar (2004). We implement the investment option in both models in finite horizon with a numerical lattice while maintaining the analytic structure for the capital structure decisions in the second stage by maintaining the perp...

We analyze the optimal contract to finance the series of investments of a growing firm. The analysis is based on the need to repeatedly raise funds when informed insiders can expropriate outside investors. The optimal contract can be implemented by a sequence of one-period debt contracts and equity ownership by outsiders. Debt is optimal, as it reduces the expected cost of auditing, while parti...

Recent macro developments in the euro area have highlighted the interactions between fiscal policy, sovereign debt, and financial fragility. We take a structural macroeconomic model with frictions in the financial intermediation process, in line with recent research, but introduce asset choice and sovereign debt holdings in the portfolio of banks. Using this model, we emphasize a new crowding-o...

The public debt stock in some economically developed countries continues to increase because of a lack of tax revenues and the concomitant burdens of social security. Many of those countries suffer from lower birth rates and consequently, have fewer children. Child allowances might be an effective way to increase fertility, leading to higher future tax revenues through an increase in the number...

A firm partially financed by debt is considered. The firm is subject to two types of shocks: macro-shocks modeled as a finite state Markov chain, and idiosyncratic shocks. The dynamics of the latter may depend on the state of the macroeconomy; the state of the economy is determined not only by fundamentals but the market sentiment as well. The lenders are competitive and debt is rolled over unt...

In this paper we examine an optimal investment policy of the firm, which is financed by issuing equity and debt during a period of time, using real options framework. We examine the effects of the maturity of investment on the values of equity, debt, firm, tax shield and bankruptcy cost. Specifically, we show that the investment timing depends not only on the investment threshold but also on th...