The Journal of Finance publishes leading research across all the major fields of finance. It is one of the most widely cited journals in academic finance, and in all of economics. Each of the six issues per year reaches over 8,000 academics, finance professionals, libraries, and government and financial institutions around the world. The journal is the official publication of The American Finance Association, the premier academic organization devoted to the study and promotion of knowledge about financial economics.
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Do Market Prices Improve the Accuracy of Court Valuations in Chapter 11?
Published: 02/04/2022 | DOI: 10.1111/jofi.13111
CEM DEMIROGLU, JULIAN FRANKS, RYAN LEWIS
The average difference between the court value and postemergence market value of newly issued stocks in Chapter 11 reorganizations exceeds 50%. We show that public dissemination of transactions in defaulted bonds reduces this difference by 23% and largely eliminates interclaimant wealth transfers. The effects of dissemination are only significant when the bonds are sufficiently traded around the court valuation date and when they receive significant amounts of postemergence equity, indicating that the bond's value is sensitive to the size and allocation of the pie. These findings imply that security prices have real effects: they improve the valuations of bankruptcy participants.
Ratings Quality and Borrowing Choice
Published: 05/31/2019 | DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12820
DOMINIQUE C. BADOER, CEM DEMIROGLU, CHRISTOPHER M. JAMES
Past studies document that incentive conflicts may lead issuer‐paid credit rating agencies to provide optimistically biased ratings. In this paper, we present evidence that investors question the quality of issuer‐paid ratings and raise corporate bond yields where the issuer‐paid rating is more positive than benchmark investor‐paid ratings. We also find that some firms with favorable issuer‐paid ratings substitute public bonds with borrowings from informed intermediaries to mitigate the “lemons discount” associated with poor quality ratings. Overall, our results suggest that the quality of issuer‐paid ratings has significant effects on borrowing costs and the choice of debt.
Do Physiological and Spiritual Factors Affect Economic Decisions?
Published: 04/28/2021 | DOI: 10.1111/jofi.13032
CEM DEMIROGLU, OGUZHAN OZBAS, RUI C. SILVA, MEHMET FATİH ULU
We examine the effects of physiology and spiritual sentiment on economic decision‐making in the context of Ramadan, an entire lunar month of daily fasting and increased spiritual reflection in the Muslim faith. Using an administrative data set of bank loans originated in Turkey during 2003 to 2013, we find that small business loans originated during Ramadan are 15% more likely to default within two years of origination. Loans originated in hot Ramadans, when adverse physiological effects of fasting are greatest, and those approved by the busiest bank branches perform worse. Despite their worse performance, Ramadan loans have lower credit spreads.