Vassil Mihov

• PhD
• Professor at Texas Christian University

Using establishment-level data, we show that COVID-19 vaccinations boost business activity and firm performance in the United States. A 10-percent increase in vaccination rates results in a 4-percent to 6-percent increase in customer visits. We document the channels through which vaccinations increase store visits and the limits to the effect of va...

Maintaining economic output during the COVID‐19 pandemic results in benefits for firm shareholders but comes at a potential cost to public health. Using store‐level data, we examine how a CEO's political leaning impacts this trade‐off. We document that firms with a Republican‐leaning CEO experience a relative increase in store visits compared to fi...

We find that firms that grant performance-contingent (p-c) equity awards with accounting-based vesting conditions to their CEOs have lower cost of debt and less restrictive loan terms. The benefits of p-c accounting-based awards on debt financing are greater when the moral hazard problem faced by debtholders is potentially more significant—for exam...

We document that borrowing costs and credit ratings are less sensitive to off-balance sheet lease financing than to on-balance sheet debt financing, particularly for firms that are financially constrained and firms that have limited ability to use tax shields. This evidence is consistent with theoretical predictions based on tax benefits as well as...

We contribute to the current debate on the accounting treatment of operating leases by providing evidence from bond markets and private lending on the market recognition of the role of leasing in determining borrowing costs and credit ratings. Borrowing costs and credit ratings are less sensitive to lease obligations than to debt financing for firm...

In this paper we examine the role of off-balance sheet leasing in determining firm borrowing costs and credit ratings. Borrowing costs increase and credit ratings decrease as firms add debt, whether on or off balance sheet. However, we find that borrowing costs and credit ratings are more sensitive to balance sheet debt than to off balance sheet fi...

There is much recent interest in the role of market timing in firm financial decisions. Using a large detailed sample of corporate public debt issues, private placements, Rule 144A issues and bank loans over the period 1970-2006, we investigate the relationship between interest rate changes and issues of floating and fixed-rate debt. Our results in...

"Using a sample that comprises more than 14,000 new issues of corporate debt for the period 1970-2001, we examine the relation between debt issues and the level of interest rates relative to historical levels. Consistent with recent survey evidence, we find that companies issue more debt, more debt relative to investment spending, and more debt com...

We examine the roles of two financial intermediaries, lenders and venture capitalists, in a sample of more than 6,000 IPO firms during 1980-2012. Venture capitalists and lenders generally fund different types of firms and, on average, are substitutes; however, in some instances we observe interactions and complementary roles between the two funding...

We investigate whether the existence of traded options represents an economically important relaxation of short sale constraints. Our analysis has three prongs. First, to the extent that option listing relaxes a binding constraint, we would expect to see investors taking synthetic short positions in the newly-listed options. Contrary to this hypoth...

I investigate the motives for issuance and the debt choices of 427 firms which issue long-term debt for the first time in their history between 1971 and 1999. Their first debt issues are very large relative to firm size and represent a permanent shift in firm financing policy. The amount issued is strongly related to deficits in internally generate...

Graham and Harvey (2001) provide survey results suggesting that managers attempt to time interest rates in their debt issuance decisions. Some of their results may be interpreted as forward-looking (i.e., trying to issue before interest rates rise), and some are backward-oriented, suggesting issuance when interest rates are low compared to historic...

We investigate the factors influencing the selection of stocks for option listing. Exchanges tend to list options on stocks with high trading volume, volatility, and market capitalization, but the relative effect of these factors has changed over time as markets have evolved. We observe a shift from volume toward volatility after the moratorium on...

A commonly cited motivation for off-balance sheet financing is a reduction in reported book (balance sheet) leverage. Operating leases, the most common form of off-balance sheet financing, are required to be disclosed in financial statement footnotes, but limited disclosure complicates external evaluation of the effective amount of off-balance shee...

Recent survey evidence suggests that managers try to time financial markets in making their financing decisions. We examine a sample of more than 14,000 new issues of corporate debt to test for evidence of timing of new debt issues. We focus our attention on interest rates in terms of their decile rankings relative to historical rates, and we ident...

Using a sample of 1,560 new debt financings, we examine the choice among bank debt, private, non-bank debt, and public debt. We find that the primary determinant of the choice of debt source is the credit quality of the issuer. Firms with the highest credit quality borrow from public sources, firms with medium credit quality borrow from banks, and...

Using a sample of 1,560 new debt financings, we examine the choice among bank debt, non-bank private debt, and public debt. The primary determinant of the debt source is the credit quality of the issuer. Firms with the highest credit quality borrow from public sources, firms with medium credit quality borrow from banks, and firms with the lowest cr...

Using a sample of 1,560 new debt financings, we examine the choice among bank debt, non-bank private debt, and public debt. The primary determinant of the debt source is the credit qualit y of the issuer. Firms with the highest credit quality borrow from public sources, firms with medium credit quality borrow from banks, and firms with the lowest c...

Previous research has documented that the introduction of options seems to affect the volatility, liquidity, price and other characteristics of the underlying stock. Existing research, however, has not adequately accounted for the fact that option listing is endogenous, a result of decisions made by exchanges and regulators. We investigate the fact...

This study investigates empirically the factors that determine whether firms borrow from banks and other finance companies versus issuing bonds for sale to the public. I analyze 1,560 new borrowings from banks, non-bank private lenders, and the public debt market by 1,480 U.S. public firms over the period 1995-1996. Using an incremental approach th...