When Does Strategic Debt-Service Matter?

45 Pages Posted: 27 May 2002

See all articles by Rangarajan K. Sundaram

Rangarajan K. Sundaram

New York University (NYU) - Department of Finance

Viral V. Acharya

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business; New York University (NYU) - Department of Finance; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Jing-Zhi Huang

Pennsylvania State University - University Park - Department of Finance

Marti G. Subrahmanyam

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business

Multiple version iconThere are 5 versions of this paper

Date Written: May 2, 2002

Abstract

Recent work has suggested that strategic underperformance of debt-service obligations by equity holders can resolve the gap between observed yield spreads and those generated by Merton (1974)-style models. We show that this is not quite correct. The value of the option to underperform on debt-service obligations depends on two other optionalities available to equity holders, namely, the option to carry cash reserves within the firm and the option to raise new external financing.

We disentangle the effects of the three factors, and characterize the impact of each in isolation as well as their interaction. We find, among other things, that while strategic behavior can increase spreads significantly under some conditions, its impact is negligible in others, and in some cases it even leads to a decline in equilibrium spreads. We show that this last apparently paradoxical result is a consequence of an interaction of optionalities that results in a trade-off between strategic and liquidity-driven defaults.

Keywords: strategic debt-service, interaction of optionalities, liquidity default, strategic default, cash-management

JEL Classification: G30, G33, G35

Suggested Citation

Sundaram, Rangarajan K. and Acharya, Viral V. and Acharya, Viral V. and Huang, Jing-Zhi Jay and Subrahmanyam, Marti G., When Does Strategic Debt-Service Matter? (May 2, 2002). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=310900 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.310900

Rangarajan K. Sundaram (Contact Author)

New York University (NYU) - Department of Finance ( email )

Stern School of Business
44 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012-1126
United States
212-998-0308 (Phone)
212-995-4233 (Fax)

Viral V. Acharya

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business ( email )

44 West 4th Street
Suite 9-160
New York, NY NY 10012
United States
2129980354 (Phone)
2129954256 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~vacharya

New York University (NYU) - Department of Finance ( email )

Stern School of Business
44 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012-1126
United States

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Jing-Zhi Jay Huang

Pennsylvania State University - University Park - Department of Finance ( email )

University Park, PA 16802
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.personal.psu.edu/jxh56

Marti G. Subrahmanyam

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business ( email )

44 West 4th Street
Suite 9-160
New York, NY NY 10012
United States

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