How does firm prestige affect the cost of bank loans?
研究发现，入选《财富》‘美国最受尊敬公司’榜单的企业，其银行贷款成本平均下降约12.3个基点，且该效应在竞争激烈行业和信息不确定性高的企业中更显著。
Firm prestige reduces the cost of bank loans. Specifically, when borrowers are included in Fortune’s list of ‘America’s Most Admired Companies' (MAC), their loan costs decline by approximately 12.3 bps on average. The effect appears causal. The negative relation between prestige and loan costs is more pronounced for borrowers in more competitive industries and with higher information uncertainty. Banks with weaker bargaining power offer favorable loan terms to the MAC ranked borrowers when they face a high degree of competition from other banks. The MAC ranking appears to be used by these banks as a summary statistic for loan quality in the face of competition.