Topic: How Do Creditor Rights Affect Investments: the Role of Credit Ratings

Lecturer: Gu Xian, Lecturer of School of Finance in Central University of Economics and Finance, PhD of economics of Beijing Normal University and post-doctoral researcher in department of finance, Warton Business School, Pennsylvania University, whose major research filed includes banking, regulation and corporate finance. Used to be a researcher in department of finance in London Imperial Business School and an analyst in CITIC Securities. Papers were published in Journal of Banking and Finance, Oxford Handbook of Banking, etc. published a book Unrest undecided - Basel II and Operational Risk Management Theory

Time: November 26th, 2015(Thursday), 12:30-13:30

Place: Lecture Hall Room 913.

Host: Gou Qin, Lecturer of School of Finance, Central University of Economics and Finance

Abstract: In this paper, we examine how creditor protection affects firms' financing and investment decisions through credit ratings in the public debt market. Using firm-level data in 63 developed and developing countries from 1989 through 2013, we find that in countries with stronger creditor rights, firms tend to have higher rating than those in countries with weaker protection. Moreover firms with higher ratings in countries with stronger creditor protections tend to have higher level of bond issuance relative to equity issuance and further have more investments. Additionally, improvements in creditor protection and rating promote capital expenditure more significantly for firms with severe agency conflicts and hence benefit particularly the public debtholders of those firms.