IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pep/journl/v11y2006i2p49-72.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Use of Debt Covenants in Small Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Chenchuramaiah T. Bathala

    (Cleveland State University)

  • Oswald D. Bowlin

    (Emeritus, Texas Tech University)

  • William P. Dukes

    (Texas Tech University)

Abstract

This paper examines the structure of debt covenants in small firms, with emphasis on privately owned firms. It is based on a survey of a large sample of firms drawn from the S&P Register of Corporations. The findings show that debt covenants imposed on small firms differ according to the firm type (privately owned or publicly owned), debt level, the borrowing cost, and the source of financing (bank or other sources). The evidence is generally consistent with the arguments relating to stockholder-bondholder agency cost conflicts and the Costly Contracting Hypothesis of Smith and Warner (1979).

Suggested Citation

  • Chenchuramaiah T. Bathala & Oswald D. Bowlin & William P. Dukes, 2006. "Use of Debt Covenants in Small Firms," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 11(2), pages 49-72, Summer.
    • Handle: RePEc:pep:journl:v:11:y:2006:i:2:p:49-72
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jefsite.org/RePEc/pep/journl/jef-2006-11-2-d-bathala.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Neil L. Fargher & Michael S. Wilkins & Lori M. Holder‐Webb, 2001. "Initial Technical Violations of Debt Covenants and Changes in Firm Risk," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3‐4), pages 465-480, April.
    2. Iskandar-Datta, Mai E. & Emery, Douglas R., 1994. "An empirical investigation of the role of indenture provisions in determining bond ratings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 93-111, January.
    3. John, Kose & Kalay, Avner, 1982. "Costly Contracting and Optimal Payout Constraints," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 37(2), pages 457-470, May.
    4. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Wruck, Karen H., 2002. "Asset liquidity, debt covenants, and managerial discretion in financial distress:*1: the collapse of L.A. Gear," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 3-34, April.
    5. Chen, Andrew H. & Hung, Mao-Wei & Mazumdar, Sumon C., 1995. "Loan covenants and corporate debt policy under bank regulations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1419-1436, November.
    6. Frankfurter, George M. & Wood, Bob Jr., 2002. "Dividend policy theories and their empirical tests," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 111-138.
    7. Cheol Park, 2000. "Monitoring and Structure of Debt Contracts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(5), pages 2157-2195, October.
    8. Begley, Joy & Feltham, Gerald A., 1999. "An empirical examination of the relation between debt contracts and management incentives," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 229-259, April.
    9. Fama, Eugene F, 1990. "Contract Costs and Financing Decisions," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 71-91, January.
    10. Ilia D. Dichev & Douglas J. Skinner, 2002. "Large–Sample Evidence on the Debt Covenant Hypothesis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 1091-1123, September.
    11. Neil L. Fargher & Michael S. Wilkins & Lori M. Holder-Webb, 2001. "Initial Technical Violations of Debt Covenants and Changes in Firm Risk," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3-4), pages 465-480.
    12. Kalay, Avner, 1982. "Stockholder-bondholder conflict and dividend constraints," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 211-233, July.
    13. 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. Saleem Bahaj & Angus Foulis & Gabor Pinter, 2020. "Home Values and Firm Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(7), pages 2225-2270, July.
    2. Gabor Pinter & Angus Foulis & Saleem Bahaj, 2016. "The Residential Collateral Channel," 2016 Meeting Papers 502, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Bahaj, Saleem & Foulis, Angus & Pinter, Gabor & Surico, Paolo, 2022. "Employment and the residential collateral channel of monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 26-44.

    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. KOCHIYAMA, Takuma & NAKAMURA, Ryosuke, 2014. "Role, Structure, and Determinants of Debt Covenants: Evidence from Japan," Working Paper Series 187, Center for Japanese Business Studies (HJBS), Graduate School of Commerce and Management Hitotsubashi University.
    2. 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.
    3. John Armour, 2006. "Should we redistribute in insolvency," Working Papers wp319, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    4. Joshua D. Rauh & Amir Sufi, 2010. "Capital Structure and Debt Structure," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(12), pages 4242-4280, December.
    5. Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Yura & Mantecon, Tomas & Song, Kyojik Roy, 2019. "Short-term institutional investors and agency costs of debt," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 195-210.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Christian Leuz, 1998. "The role of accrual accounting in restricting dividends to shareholders," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 579-604.
    9. Alan V. S. Douglas, 2003. "Corporate Investment Incentives and Accounting†Based Debt Covenants," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(4), pages 645-683, December.
    10. 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.
    11. Mitchell Berlin & Gregory P. Nini & Edison Yu, 2017. "Concentration of Control Rights in Leveraged Loan Syndicates," Working Papers 17-22, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    12. Peter R. Demerjian, 2017. "Uncertainty and debt covenants," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1156-1197, September.
    13. Black, Ervin L. & Carnes, Thomas A. & Mosebach, Michael & Moyer, Susan E., 2004. "Regulatory monitoring as a substitute for debt covenants," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 367-391, September.
    14. 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.
    15. Stefan Wielenberg, 2009. "Ausschüttungsbegrenzung und liquidationsfinanzierte Ausschüttungen — wie sinnvoll ist vorsichtige Rechnungslegung?," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 2-21, February.
    16. Takuma Kochiyama & Ryosuke Nakamura & Akinobu Shuto, 2021. "How do bank lenders use borrowers’ financial statements? Evidence from a survey of Japanese banks," CARF F-Series CARF-F-522, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    17. Bakar, Intan Suryani Abu & Khan, Arifur & Mather, Paul & Tanewski, George, 2018. "Corporate boards and performance pricing in private debt contracts," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 144-162.
    18. Umar Butt, 2019. "Debt covenant violation, competition and cost of new debt," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 44(2), pages 163-187, May.
    19. Hines, James R. & Park, Jongsang, 2019. "Investment ramifications of distortionary tax subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 36-51.
    20. Daniel, Naveen D. & Denis, David J. & Naveen, Lalitha, 2008. "Do firms manage earnings to meet dividend thresholds," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 2-26, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Debt; Debt Covenants; Covenants; Small Firm; Small Business;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

    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:pep:journl:v:11:y:2006:i:2:p:49-72. 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: Craig Everett (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bapepus.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.