Abstract We investigate the link between the spatial concentration of firms in large, central metropolitans (i.e. urban agglomeration) and the cost of public corporate debt. Looking at bond issues over the period 1985–2014, we find that bonds issued by companies headquartered in urban agglomerates have lower at-issue yield spreads than bonds issued by firms based in remote, sparsely populated areas. Measures of the count of institutional bondholders in a firm’s vicinity confirm that the spatial cross-sectional variation in bond spreads is driven by the proximity of metropolitan firms to large concentrations of institutional investors. Our results are robust to controls for firm productivity and governance, analyst following, and exogenous shocks to institutional investor attention. The effect of headquarters location on bond spreads is especially pronounced for more difficult to value, speculative-grade bonds, bonds issued by smaller, less visible firms and bonds issued without protective covenants. Overall, we provide evidence that the geographical distribution of firms and investors generates a corresponding distribution of value-relevant, firm-level information that affects its cost of capital.

中文翻译：

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信息地理：来自公共债务市场的证据

摘要 我们研究了大型中心城市（即城市群）中公司的空间集中度与公共公司债务成本之间的联系。回顾 1985 年至 2014 年期间的债券发行，我们发现总部位于城市群的公司发行的债券的发行收益率差低于位于偏远、人口稀少地区的公司发行的债券。对公司附近机构债券持有人数量的测量证实，债券利差的空间横截面变化是由大都市公司接近大量机构投资者所驱动的。我们的结果在控制公司生产力和治理、分析师关注以及对机构投资者注意力的外生冲击的控制下是稳健的。总部所在地对债券利差的影响对于更难估值的投机级债券、规模较小、知名度较低的公司发行的债券以及没有保护性契约发行的债券尤为明显。总体而言，我们提供的证据表明，公司和投资者的地理分布产生了与价值相关的公司层面信息的相应分布，这些信息会影响其资本成本。