Publications

2025
Working Paper

Bank Capital and the Growth of Private Credit

By: Sergey Chernenko, Robert Ialenti and David Scharfstein

We show that business development companies (BDCs), a significant source of private credit, are very well capitalized according to bank capital frameworks. These types of private credit funds have median risk-based capital ratios of about 36%, which is 26 percentage... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Capital; Credit; Financial Institutions

SSRN

January 2005 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Private Capital and Public Policy: Standard & Poor's Sovereign Credit Ratings

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Christopher Bruner

Describes Standard & Poor's sovereign credit ratings business. Provides background on the history of credit ratings agencies, the meaning of credit ratings, the expansion of the sovereign ratings business over recent decades, and the market for credit ratings. Also,... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; History; Policy; Business and Government Relations; International Finance; Country; Globalized Economies and Regions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Capital Markets; Debates; Financial Services Industry; United States

Forthcoming
Article

The (Heterogenous) Economic Effects of Private Equity Buyouts

By: Steven J. Davis, John Haltiwanger, Kyle Handley, Ben Lipsius, Josh Lerner and Javier Miranda

The effects of private equity buyouts on employment, productivity, and job reallocation vary tremendously with macroeconomic and credit conditions, across private equity groups, and by type of buyout. We reach this conclusion by examining the most extensive... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Buyouts; Impact; Private Equity; Economics; Employment; Performance Productivity; Wages

June 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Teaching Note

Private Capital and Public Policy: Standard & Poor's Sovereign Credit Ratings (TN)

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

Keywords: Public Sector; Credit; Financial Services Industry

March 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

The Credit Suisse/Gerson Lehrman Group Alliance

By: Robert G. Eccles and Laura Winig

The equity research department of Credit Suisse and the expert network firm of Gerson Lehrman Group, historically competitors, have established a strategic alliance which both believe will give them a competitive advantage. Under the leadership of its head of equity... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Financial Crisis; Investment Banking; Innovation and Invention; Alliances; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competitive Advantage; Banking Industry

January 2020
Case

SK Group: Social Progress Credits

By: George Serafeim, Ethan Rouen and David Freiberg

SK Group was one of the largest companies South Korea. A family-run conglomerate consisting of around 120 subsidiaries and employing more than 100,000, SK was tightly knit into the fabric of Korean society. SK viewed their future success as contingent upon the strength... View Details

Spring 2012
Article

The Roadmap for Private Equity, Venture Capital and Hedge Funds in Mexico: Alternative Assets as an Accelerator of Credit to Firms in Emerging Markets

By: Roberto Charvel

This article shows how alternative assets could be a good way for banks to start providing more loans to firms in emerging markets and finance growth, while giving local institutional investors access to new asset types. View Details

2013
Working Paper

Combining Banking with Private Equity Investing

By: Lily Fang, Victoria Ivashina and Josh Lerner

Bank-affiliated private equity groups account for 30% of all private equity investments. Their market share is highest during peaks of the private equity market, when the parent banks arrange more debt financing for in-house transactions yet have the lowest exposure to... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

September 2013
Article

Combining Banking with Private Equity Investing

By: Lily H. Fang, Victoria Ivashina and Josh Lerner

Bank-affiliated private equity groups account for 30% of all private equity investments. Their market share is highest during peaks of the private equity market, when the parent banks arrange more debt financing for in-house transactions yet have the lowest exposure to... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

SSRN

Fall 2020
Article

Business Credit Programs in the Pandemic Era

By: Samuel G. Hanson, Jeremy C. Stein, Adi Sunderam and Eric Zwick

We develop a pair of models that speak to the goals and design of the sort of business-lending and corporate-bond purchase programs that have been introduced by governments in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. An overarching theme is that, in contrast to the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Business Lending; Government Intervention; Econometric Models; Health Pandemics; Credit; Governance; Policy

Read Now

14 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Keeping Credit Flowing to Consumers in Need

government should not be the sole credit source. But how will private capital respond to a diminished federal role? Given the collapse of the housing market, what terms will View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

2008
Working Paper

Fixing Market Failures or Fixing Elections? Agricultural Credit in India

By: Shawn A. Cole

This paper integrates theories of political budget cycles with theories of tactical electoral redistribution to test for political capture in a novel way. Studying banks in India, I find that government-owned bank lending tracks the electoral cycle, with agricultural... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Political Elections; State Ownership; Banking Industry; India

Read Now

31 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Why Competition May Not Improve Credit Rating Agencies

reserves when investing in bonds of lower ratings. Ratings are also used in private contracts, for example to define the investment objectives of bond mutual funds. Ratings are a concise and well-understood metric of View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

06 Aug 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Fixing Market Failures or Fixing Elections? Agricultural Credit in India

Keywords: by Shawn A. Cole; Banking

08 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Twenty-first Century Skill: Trading Carbon Credits

Cap and trade has become an increasingly popular mechanism used by governments to induce green behavior among corporate polluters, with news emerging almost daily. Just recently New Jersey Governor Chris Christie withdrew his state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

12 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Private Sector, Public Good

Public Sector seminar series, which runs through May, is designed to induce lively conversation, build a community of scholars, and create a research agenda exploring the possible role of the private sector in shaping the institutions of... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Article

What is the Other Reason of Why Private Equity Matters in Emerging Markets?

By: Roberto Charvel

Private equity investments in emerging markets can help increase the availability of credit for firms. View Details

Keywords: Alternative Assets; Emerging Economies; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Financial Services Industry; Latin America

Article

Credit Access and Social Welfare: The Rise of Consumer Lending in the United States and France

By: Gunnar Trumbull

Research into the causes of the 2008 financial crisis has drawn attention to a link between growing income inequality in the United States and high household indebtedness. Most accounts trace the U.S. idea of credit-as-welfare to the period of wage stagnation and... View Details

Keywords: Household Finance; Welfare State; Credit; Personal Finance; Welfare; Borrowing and Debt; France; United States