FIN 475 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: George Akerlof, Capital Structure, Adverse Selection

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19 Jun 2019
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Managers" information about the firm and its future cash flows is likely to be superior to that of outside investors there is asymmetric information between managers and investors. A manager must take actions that give credible signals of his knowledge of the firm. This idea is more general than manager investor communication; it is at the heart of much human interaction. We call it the credibility principle: claims in one"s self-interest are credible only if they are supported by actions that would be too costly to take if the claims were untrue. This principle is the essence behind the adage, actions speak louder than words. A manager can use leverage as a way to convince investors that she does have information that the firm will grow, even if she cannot provide verifiable details about the sources of growth. The use of leverage as a way to signal good information to investors is known as the signalling theory of debt.

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