We examine the impact of intensifying competition laws on corporate debt financing choice. Analogous to the argument that intensifying competition spurs improvements in corporate governance, which decreases the demand for bank monitoring and hence bank debt, we find a negative association between stringent competition laws and bank debt reliance. This effect is amplified for firms with lower information quality, firms in concentrated industries, and firms in countries with weaker institutional environments. Additional analyses show that the bank debt-reducing effect of competition increases overall firm value, which demonstrate the value-enhancing effect of regulated competition. Our study is contributory to the recent debate on reforming competition laws to promote economic growth.

中文翻译：

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规范竞争时代的债务选择

我们研究了日益严格的竞争法对企业债务融资选择的影响。类似于竞争加剧会刺激公司治理的改善，从而减少对银行监管的需求，从而减少银行债务的论点，我们发现严格的竞争法与银行债务依赖之间存在负相关关系。对于信息质量较低的企业、行业集中的企业以及制度环境较弱的国家的企业来说，这种效应会被放大。进一步的分析表明，竞争的银行债务减少效应提高了企业的整体价值，这证明了受监管竞争的价值提升效应。我们的研究对最近关于改革竞争法以促进经济增长的辩论做出了贡献。