Uncertainty and loan pricing for public and private firms: evidence from the Brexit referendum
利用2016年英国脱欧公投作为不确定性冲击，研究发现不确定性使私营企业贷款成本比上市公司上升更多，但海外业务能缓解这一影响，且不确定性对两类企业贷款契约条款的影响也不同。
We examine the impact of uncertainty on loan pricing for public and private firms in the UK, using the 2016 Brexit referendum as an exogenous shock of uncertainty. We find that uncertainty leads to a significantly higher cost of borrowing for private firms relative to public firms. However, firm-level foreign exposure, i.e. foreign sales and subsidiaries in the foreign markets, mitigates the adverse impact of uncertainty on loan prices more for private firms than public firms. Moreover, uncertainty increases the number of financial covenants in loans for public firms with high information transparency (i.e. constituents of FTSE 100/250). However, we observe a decline in the number of financial covenants in loans for private firms with low information transparency (i.e. private firms without institutional investors) under uncertainty. Overall, we provide novel evidence highlighting the differences in the design of syndicated loan contracts between public and private firms under uncertainty.