The choice between bank loans and bonds, depending on firm characteristics, after Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. market.
Summary
In this thesis I study if the choice between bond and loan issuance, before and after Covid-19, is affected, using US market quarterly within firm-level data, from the second quarter of 2012 until the second quarter of 2022. I also study the impact of firms’ asset tangibility on the debt choice during the global pandemic. To answer these questions I combine firm characteristic data from Compustat, bonds from Mergent and large syndicated loans data from FactSet. I perform linear and logistic regressions applying fixed-effects to my models. Banks proved to be surprisingly resilient against the financial impact of Covid-19 on the US economy, while the bond market is negatively affected.