Essays in Corporate Finance

Abstract

This dissertation studies how debt structure and risk management decisions affect firms' investment. The first chapter focuses on building the stylized facts on the relation between debt structure, capital structure and investment when firms' have both, secured and unsecured debt available. Results suggests that i) firms with higher creditworthiness tend to borrow more unsecured debt, ii) higher collateral availability may not lead to more investment and iii) more reliance on unsecured debt leads to more investment. The second chapter uses two identification strategies to test the causal effect of the relations derived in chapter one. I test the hypothesis from a balance sheet and credit channel perspective. Results show that the composition of debt structure of firms has real implications. The higher the unsecured debt in debt structure, the more firms can invest. The explanation for this result is that unsecured debt is more cost-effect in terms of spreads and debt covenants. Finally, the last chapter uses a panel of shocks to the cost of hedging to different firms at different points in time to study the relation between hedging and risk. I exploit the introduction and delisting of commodity derivatives by the CME and other exchanges for identification. I find evidence suggesting that cheaper access to hedging instruments reduces the volatility of cashflows and thus, increases firms' investment.

Date of Award	21 Jun 2016
Original language	English
Supervisor	Filippo Ippolito (Director), Hugo Rodríguez Mendizábal (Director) & Hector Sala Lorda (Tutor)