Earthly Reward to the Religious: Religiosity and the Costs of Public and Private Debt
研究发现企业所在地区的宗教信仰程度越高，其信用评级越高、债务成本越低，且这种效应在信息不对称严重或经济衰退时更强。银行比债券市场更能将这种软信息纳入定价，尤其当贷款方是小银行时。
We document that a firm’s culture, specifically, its religiosity, affects its cost of debt. Firms in higher-religiosity counties have higher credit ratings and lower debt costs. The impact of religiosity is stronger for firms with greater information asymmetry and during recessions. Further, religiosity has additional explanatory power for the cost of bank loans (but not the cost of public bonds) beyond its impact through ratings. This supports the argument that banks have superior abilities in pricing soft information, such as corporate culture. Finally, the impact of religiosity is stronger when the lender is a small bank.