Financial markets reveal information that firm managers can utilize when making equity value-enhancing investment decisions. However, for firms with risky debt, such investments are not necessarily socially efficient. Despite this friction, we show that learning from prices improves investment efficiency. This effect is asymmetric, however, as investors learn less about projects that decrease the riskiness of cash flows: efficiency is lower for diversifying investments than for focusing (risk-increasing) investments. This also implies that investors’ endogenous learning further attenuates risk shifting but amplifies debt overhang. Our model provides a novel channel through which learning from financial markets affects agency frictions between stakeholders.

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金融市场学习：对债务与股权冲突的影响

金融市场揭示了公司管理者在做出提升股权价值的投资决策时可以利用的信息。然而，对于债务风险较高的公司来说，此类投资不一定具有社会效率。尽管存在这种摩擦，我们表明从价格中学习可以提高投资效率。然而，这种效应是不对称的，因为投资者对降低现金流风险的项目了解较少：多元化投资的效率低于集中（风险增加）投资的效率。这也意味着投资者的内生学习进一步削弱了风险转移，但放大了债务负担。我们的模型提供了一种新颖的渠道，通过该渠道向金融市场学习可以影响利益相关者之间的代理摩擦。