IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/3566.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

When Does Strategic Debt Service Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Acharya, Viral
  • Sundaram, Rangarajan K
  • Huang, Jing-Zhi
  • Subrahmanyam, Marti

Abstract

Recent work has suggested that strategic underperformance of debt-service obligations by equity holders can resolve the gap between observed yield spreads and those generated by Merton-style models. We show that this is not quite correct. The value of the option to underperform on debt-service obligations depends on two other optionalities available to equity holders, namely, the option to carry cash reserves within the firm and the option to raise new external financing. We disentangle the effects of the three factors, and characterize the impact of each in isolation as well as their interaction. We find, among other things, that while strategic behavior can increase spreads significantly under some conditions, its impact is negligible in others, and in some cases it even leads to a decline in equilibrium spreads. We show that this last apparently paradoxical result is a consequence of an interaction of optionalities that results in a trade-off between strategic and liquidity-driven defaults.

Suggested Citation

  • Acharya, Viral & Sundaram, Rangarajan K & Huang, Jing-Zhi & Subrahmanyam, Marti, 2002. "When Does Strategic Debt Service Matter?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3566, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:3566
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP3566
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Viral Acharya & Jing-zhi Huang & Marti Subrahmanyam & Rangarajan Sundaram, 2006. "When does Strategic Debt-service Matter?," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 29(2), pages 363-378, October.
    2. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1998. "Default and Renegotiation: A Dynamic Model of Debt," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(1), pages 1-41.
    3. Mella-Barral, Pierre & Perraudin, William, 1997. "Strategic Debt Service," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 531-556, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Dionne, Georges & Laajimi, Sadok, 2012. "On the determinants of the implied default barrier," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 395-408.
    2. Goto, Makoto & Suzuki, Teruyoshi, 2015. "Optimal default and liquidation with tangible assets and debt renegotiation," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 16-27.
    3. Augustin, Patrick & Subrahmanyam, Marti G. & Tang, Dragon Yongjun & Wang, Sarah Qian, 2014. "Credit Default Swaps: A Survey," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 9(1-2), pages 1-196, December.
    4. Anderson, Ronald W. & Nyborg, Kjell G., 2011. "Financing and corporate growth under repeated moral hazard," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    5. Linda Allen & Anthony Saunders, 2004. "Incorporating Systemic Influences Into Risk Measurements: A Survey of the Literature," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 26(2), pages 161-191, October.
    6. Hege, U. & Mella-Barral, P., 1999. "Collateral, Renegotiation and the Value of Diffusely Held Debt," Other publications TiSEM d1806bd7-b34c-4249-b6fd-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Hwang Hee Lee & Frederick Dongchuhl Oh, 2022. "The role of credit default swaps in determining corporate payout policy," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 51(2), pages 635-661, June.
    8. Decamps, Jean-Paul & Faure-Grimaud, Antoine, 2002. "Excessive continuation and dynamic agency costs of debt," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1623-1644, October.
    9. Bourgeon, Jean-Marc & Dionne, Georges, 2013. "On debt service and renegotiation when debt-holders are more strategic," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 353-372.
    10. David Nickerson, 2016. "Asset Price Volatility, Credit Rationing and Rational Lending Discrimination," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(10), pages 140-158, October.
    11. Frantz, Pascal & Instefjord, Norvald, 2019. "Debt overhang and non-distressed debt restructuring," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 75-88.
    12. Charalambides, Marios & Koussis, Nicos, 2018. "A stochastic model with interacting managerial operating options and debt rescheduling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(1), pages 236-249.
    13. Pawlina, Grzegorz, 2010. "Underinvestment, capital structure and strategic debt restructuring," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 679-702, December.
    14. Makoto Goto & Teruyoshi Suzuki, 2015. "Optimal default and liquidation with tangible assets and debt renegotiation," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 16-27, November.
    15. R. Jarrow & A. Purnanandam, 2007. "The valuation of a firm’s investment opportunities: a reduced form credit risk perspective," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 39-58, January.
    16. Hamoto, Azad & Correia, Ricardo, 2012. "A theoretical analysis of the stages and events experienced by financially distressed firms," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB 13115, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    17. Adriana Breccia & William Perraudin, 2010. "Debt Valuation and Chapter 22," Birkbeck Working Papers in Economics and Finance 1015, Birkbeck, Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics.
    18. Frantz, Pascal & Instefjord, Norvald, 2019. "Debt overhang and non-distressed debt restructuring," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 90212, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Hongda Zhong, 2021. "A Dynamic Model of Optimal Creditor Dispersion," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(1), pages 267-316, February.
    20. Subrahmanyam, Marti G. & Tang, Dragon Yongjun & Wang, Sarah Qian, 2017. "Credit default swaps, exacting creditors and corporate liquidity management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 395-414.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Strategic debt-service; Interaction of optionalities; Liquidity default; Strategic default; Cash-management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy

    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:cpr:ceprdp:3566. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.