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Multiple Lenders, Strategic Default and Covenants

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We study competition in capital markets subject to moral hazard when investors cannot prevent side trading. Perfect competition is impeded by entrepreneurs’ threat to borrow excessively from multiple lenders and to shirk. As a consequence, investors earn positive rents at equilibrium. We then analyze how investors’ ability to design financial contracts with covenants deals with this counterparty externality. We show that enlarging investors’ contracting opportunities generates a severe market failure: with covenants, market equilibria are indeterminate and Pareto ranked. Market outcomes are then determined by designing specific financial institutions. Information sharing systems restore efficiency but leave a positive rent to investors. A mechanism of investors-financed subsidies to entrepreneurs mitigates the threat of default and sustains the competitive allocation.

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  • Andrea Attar & Catherine Casamatta & Arnold Chassagnon & Jean Paul Décamps, 2013. "Multiple Lenders, Strategic Default and Covenants," CEIS Research Paper 261, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 08 Aug 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:261
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    Cited by:

    1. Degryse, H.A. & Ioannidou, V. & von Schedvin, E.L., 2011. "On the Non-Exclusivity of Loan Contracts : An Empirical Investigation," Discussion Paper 2011-130, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    2. Claude Fluet & Paolo G. Garella, 2014. "Debt Rescheduling with Multiple Lenders: Relying on the Information of Others," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(324), pages 698-720, October.
    3. Andrea Attar & Catherine Casamatta & Arnold Chassagnon & Jean Paul Décamps, 2019. "Contracting Sequentially with Multiple Lenders: The Role of Menus," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(4), pages 977-990, June.
    4. Chodorow-Reich, Gabriel & Darmouni, Olivier & Luck, Stephan & Plosser, Matthew, 2022. "Bank liquidity provision across the firm size distribution," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 908-932.
    5. Green, Daniel & Liu, Ernest, 2021. "A dynamic theory of multiple borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 389-404.
    6. Campello, Murillo & Connolly, Robert A. & Kankanhalli, Gaurav & Steiner, Eva, 2022. "Do real estate values boost corporate borrowing? Evidence from contract-level data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 611-644.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Counterparty Externality; Covenants; Nonexclusive Competition; Strategic Default.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation

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