We study how credit supply frictions in the regional availability of debt financing in the U.S. affect corporate yield spreads. We define a measure of debt inflexibility that captures the firm’s inability to buffer a tightening in bank credit by replacing bank loans with corporate bonds. We document that more inflexible firms suffer a higher increase in yield spreads as bank credit tightens. This happens for both market-wide tightening in lending standards and firm-specific tightening upon loan covenant violations. Moreover, inflexible firms display a closer connection between changes in yield spreads and stock returns.

中文翻译：

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银行信贷紧缩、债市摩擦与企业收益率利差

我们研究了美国债务融资区域可用性中的信贷供应摩擦如何影响企业收益率利差。我们定义了一种衡量债务不灵活性的方法，它反映了公司无法通过用公司债券代替银行贷款来缓冲银行信贷紧缩的情况。我们记录到，随着银行信贷收紧，更不灵活的公司会遭受更高的收益率利差增长。这种情况发生在贷款标准的整个市场收紧和因违反贷款契约而特定于公司的收紧。此外，缺乏灵活性的公司在收益率差的变化和股票回报之间表现出更密切的联系。