IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v112y2020ics0378426617302546.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Debt maturity and the cost of bank loans

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Chih-Wei
  • Chiu, Wan-Chien
  • King, Tao-Hsien Dolly

Abstract

This study explores the extent to which a firm's debt maturity structure affects the cost of bank loans. By examining the U.S. syndicated loans from 1990 and 2014, we find that debt maturity structure is a major determinant of loan spreads, after accounting for firm- and loan-specific variables and firm and year fixed effects. A one standard deviation increase in the ratio of short-term debt to total assets is associated with an increase of 11.44 basis points in loan spread, representing an additional $0.644 million in interest expenses. The results support the rollover risk hypothesis, which predicts that short-term debts intensify the shareholder and bondholder conflicts and lead to greater credit risk. In addition, high-growth firms experience significantly smaller increases in their loan spreads than low-growth firms when the short-term debt ratio increases. This finding is consistent with the asset substitution theory that short-term debt mitigates the managerial/shareholders’ risk-taking incentives, leading to a decrease in firm risk. Our results remain strong when we use alternative short-term debt proxies, address endogeneity concerns, and perform various robustness tests.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Chih-Wei & Chiu, Wan-Chien & King, Tao-Hsien Dolly, 2020. "Debt maturity and the cost of bank loans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:112:y:2020:i:c:s0378426617302546
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.10.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426617302546
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.10.008?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. Viral V. Acharya & Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello, 2013. "Aggregate Risk and the Choice between Cash and Lines of Credit," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 2059-2116, October.
    2. Bill Francis & Iftekhar Hasan & Michael Koetter & Qiang Wu, 2012. "Corporate Boards And Bank Loan Contracting," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 35(4), pages 521-552, December.
    3. Graham, John R. & Li, Si & Qiu, Jiaping, 2008. "Corporate misreporting and bank loan contracting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 44-61, July.
    4. Denis, David J. & Mihov, Vassil T., 2003. "The choice among bank debt, non-bank private debt, and public debt: evidence from new corporate borrowings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 3-28, October.
    5. repec:oup:rfinst:v:21:y:2017:i:4:p:1739-1765. is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Zhiguo He & Wei Xiong, 2012. "Rollover Risk and Credit Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 391-430, April.
    7. Hui Chen & Yu Xu & Jun Yang, 2012. "Systematic Risk, Debt Maturity, and the Term Structure of Credit Spreads," NBER Working Papers 18367, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Shane A. Johnson, 2003. "Debt Maturity and the Effects of Growth Opportunities and Liquidity Risk on Leverage," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(1), pages 209-236.
    9. João A. C. Santos, 2011. "Bank Corporate Loan Pricing Following the Subprime Crisis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(6), pages 1916-1943.
    10. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_003 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Barclay, Michael J. & Marx, Leslie M. & Smith, Clifford Jr., 2003. "The joint determination of leverage and maturity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 149-167, March.
    12. Goss, Allen & Roberts, Gordon S., 2011. "The impact of corporate social responsibility on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1794-1810, July.
    13. Murillo Campello & Chen Lin & Yue Ma & Hong Zou, 2011. "The Real and Financial Implications of Corporate Hedging," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1615-1647, October.
    14. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2012_014 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Patricio Valenzuela, 2016. "Rollover Risk and Credit Spreads: Evidence from International Corporate Bonds," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(2), pages 631-661.
    16. 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.
    17. Hertzel, Michael G. & Officer, Micah S., 2012. "Industry contagion in loan spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 493-506.
    18. 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.
    19. Assaf Eisdorfer, 2008. "Empirical Evidence of Risk Shifting in Financially Distressed Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 609-637, April.
    20. Matteo Arena, 2011. "The corporate choice between public debt, bank loans, traditional private debt placements, and 144A debt issues," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 391-416, April.
    21. Dennis, Steven & Nandy, Debarshi & Sharpe, Lan G., 2000. "The Determinants of Contract Terms in Bank Revolving Credit Agreements," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 87-110, March.
    22. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:2:p:831-868 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Wang, Chih-Wei & Chiu, Wan-Chien & Peña, Juan Ignacio, 2017. "Effect of rollover risk on default risk: Evidence from bank financing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 130-143.
    24. Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo & Laranjeira, Bruno & Weisbenner, Scott, 2012. "Corporate Debt Maturity and the Real Effects of the 2007 Credit Crisis," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 1(1), pages 3-58, January.
    25. Gopalan, Radhakrishnan & Song, Fenghua & Yerramilli, Vijay, 2014. "Debt Maturity Structure and Credit Quality," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 817-842, August.
    26. Hale, Galina & Santos, João A.C., 2009. "Do banks price their informational monopoly?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 185-206, August.
    27. Hasan, Iftekhar & Hoi, Chun Keung & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2017. "Social Capital and Debt Contracting: Evidence from Bank Loans and Public Bonds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(3), pages 1017-1047, June.
    28. Sudip Datta & Mai Iskandar‐Datta & Kartik Raman, 2005. "Managerial Stock Ownership and the Maturity Structure of Corporate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(5), pages 2333-2350, October.
    29. van Damme, E.E.C., 2002. "Economische analyse van politieke processen," Other publications TiSEM 54188f86-501c-4808-b802-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    30. João A. C. Santos & Andrew Winton, 2008. "Bank Loans, Bonds, and Information Monopolies across the Business Cycle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1315-1359, June.
    31. Paul Brockman & Xiumin Martin & Emre Unlu, 2010. "Executive Compensation and the Maturity Structure of Corporate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 1123-1161, June.
    32. Joel F. Houston & Liangliang Jiang & Chen Lin & Yue Ma, 2014. "Political Connections and the Cost of Bank Loans," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 193-243, March.
    33. Campbell, Tim S & Kracaw, William A, 1990. "Corporate Risk Management and the Incentive Effects of Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(5), pages 1673-1686, December.
    34. Kenneth Khang & Tao-Hsien Dolly King & Hung Nguyen, 2016. "What determines outstanding corporate debt mix? Evidence from fractional multinomial logit estimation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(4), pages 276-291, January.
    35. Teodora Paligorova & João A. C. Santos, 2017. "Banks’ Exposure to Rollover Risk and the Maturity of Corporate Loans," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 21(4), pages 1739-1765.
    36. Custódio, Cláudia & Ferreira, Miguel A. & Laureano, Luís, 2013. "Why are US firms using more short-term debt?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 182-212.
    37. Matthew T. Billett & Tao‐Hsien Dolly King & David C. Mauer, 2007. "Growth Opportunities and the Choice of Leverage, Debt Maturity, and Covenants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 697-730, April.
    38. Sudheer Chava & Michael R. Roberts, 2008. "How Does Financing Impact Investment? The Role of Debt Covenants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2085-2121, October.
    39. Barclay, Michael J & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1995. "The Maturity Structure of Corporate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(2), pages 609-631, June.
    40. Peter Kennedy, 2003. "A Guide to Econometrics, 5th Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 5, volume 1, number 026261183x, April.
    41. Hasan, Iftekhar & Hoi, Chun Keung (Stan) & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2014. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The effect of corporate tax avoidance on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 109-130.
    42. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    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. Wu, Lingling & Zhang, Yi, 2024. "Social credit system construction and corporate debt dilemmas," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Guo, Hongling & Sun, Yue & Qiu, Xuemei, 2021. "Cross-shareholding network and corporate bond financing cost in China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    3. Lin, Boqiang & Bai, Rui, 2022. "Machine learning approaches for explaining determinants of the debt financing in heavy-polluting enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    4. Liu, Guanchun & Liu, Yuanyuan & Zhang, Chengsi, 2021. "Human capital in the financial sector and corporate debt maturity," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    5. Atawnah, Nader & Zaman, Rashid & Liu, Jia & Atawna, Thaer & Maghyereh, Aktham, 2023. "Does foreign competition affect corporate debt maturity structure? Evidence from import penetration," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Do, Trung K., 2021. "Financial statement comparability and corporate debt maturity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    7. Nguyen, Thanh Cong & Thuy, Tien Ho, 2023. "Geopolitical risk and the cost of bank loans," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    8. Wu, Julia Yonghua & Opare, Solomon & Bhuiyan, Md. Borhan Uddin & Habib, Ahsan, 2022. "Determinants and consequences of debt maturity structure: A systematic review of the international literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Xuemeng Guo & Jiaxin Ma & Yuting Feng & Bingyao Chen, 2023. "Green Credit Policy and Short-Term Financing for Long-Term Investment: Evidence from China’s Heavily Polluting Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-18, December.
    10. Shang, Chenguang, 2021. "Dare to play with fire? Managerial ability and the use of short-term debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    11. Chiu, Wan-Chien & King, Tao-Hsien Dolly & Wang, Chih-Wei, 2021. "Debt maturity dispersion and the cost of bank loans," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    12. Jiangming Ma & Di Gao, 2023. "The Impact of Sustainable Supply-Chain Partnership on Bank Loans: Evidence from Chinese-Listed Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-25, March.
    13. Kim, Hwagyun & Mathur, Vipul & Shin, Jong Kook & Subramanian, Chetan, 2023. "Misallocation of debt and aggregate productivity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(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. Shang, Chenguang, 2021. "Dare to play with fire? Managerial ability and the use of short-term debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Hong, Jieying, 2019. "Managerial compensation incentives and corporate debt maturity: Evidence from FAS 123R," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 388-414.
    3. Khoo, Joye & (Wai Kong) Cheung, Adrian, 2022. "Managerial ability and debt maturity," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    4. Wang, Chih-Wei & Chiu, Wan-Chien, 2019. "Effect of short-term debt on default risk: Evidence from Pacific Basin countries," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    5. Kashefi Pour, Eilnaz & Lasfer, Meziane, 2019. "Taxes, governance, and debt maturity structure: International evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 136-161.
    6. Chiu, Wan-Chien & King, Tao-Hsien Dolly & Wang, Chih-Wei, 2021. "Debt maturity dispersion and the cost of bank loans," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Atawnah, Nader & Zaman, Rashid & Liu, Jia & Atawna, Thaer & Maghyereh, Aktham, 2023. "Does foreign competition affect corporate debt maturity structure? Evidence from import penetration," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Huang, Kershen & Shang, Chenguang, 2019. "Leverage, debt maturity, and social capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 26-46.
    9. Li, Tongxia & Lu, Chun & Routledge, James, 2023. "Brand capital on debt maturity structure," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3).
    10. Wu, Julia Yonghua & Opare, Solomon & Bhuiyan, Md. Borhan Uddin & Habib, Ahsan, 2022. "Determinants and consequences of debt maturity structure: A systematic review of the international literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Chia-Ying Chan & Iftekhar Hasan & Chih-Yung Lin, 2021. "Agency cost of CEO perquisites in bank loan contracts," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1221-1258, May.
    12. Dung T. T. Tran & Hieu V. Phan, 2022. "Government economic policy uncertainty and corporate debt contracting," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 169-199, March.
    13. Huang, Qianqian & Jiang, Feng & Wu, Szu-Yin (Jennifer), 2018. "Does short-maturity debt discipline managers? Evidence from cash-rich firms' acquisition decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 133-154.
    14. Tanaka, Takanori, 2016. "How do managerial incentives affect the maturity structure of corporate public debt?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 130-146.
    15. Gao, Ning & Jiang, Wei & Jin, Jiaxu, 2023. "Disproportional control rights and debt maturity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    16. Chiu, Wan-Chien & Wang, Chih-Wei, 2019. "Rollover risk and cost of bank debt: The role of family-control ownership," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 362-378.
    17. Li, WeiWei & Padmanabhan, Prasad & Huang, Chia-Hsing, 2024. "ESG and debt structure: Is the nature of this relationship nonlinear?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    18. Viet Anh Dang & Edward Lee & Yangke Liu & Cheng Zeng, 2018. "Corporate debt maturity and stock price crash risk," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 24(3), pages 451-484, June.
    19. Jamie Alcock & Frank Finn & Kelvin Jui Keng Tan, 2012. "The determinants of debt maturity in Australian firms," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(2), pages 313-341, June.
    20. Ivan E. Brick & Rose C. Liao, 2017. "The joint determinants of cash holdings and debt maturity: the case for financial constraints," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 597-641, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank loan; Short-term debt; Debt maturity; Rollover risk; Asset substitution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:eee:jbfina:v:112:y:2020:i:c:s0378426617302546. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    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.