PUBLICATIONS
Refereed Publications:
Spillover Effects of Creditor Rights on Corporate Payout Policy
Attig, N., Brockman, P., Rahaman, M., 2025. Journal of Financial Research, conditionally accepted.
Synopsis: Strengthening creditor rights leads to an economically significant increase in dividend payments for shareholders.
Creditors at the Gate: Effects of Selective Environmental Disclosure on the Cost of Debt
Attig, N., Rahaman, M., and Trabelsi, S., 2025. Corporate Governance: An International Review. 33(2), 202-230.
SSRN's Top Ten downloaded paper in Corporate Governance, Sustainable Development, and Corporate Social Responsibility e-Journals.
Synopsis: Private creditors use higher loan spread ( stick) to discourage greenwashing behavior while maintaining the provisions of credit through less restrictive non-price loan terms (carrot).
​
Are Firms as Liquid as They Appear in Annual Reports?
Khokhar, R., Qiu, J., and Rahaman, M. 2024. Contemporary Accounting Research, 41(2), 944-975.
SSRN's Top Ten downloaded paper in Corporate Governance and Disclosure & Accounting Decisions e-Journals.
Synopsis: Managers tend to inflate liquidity by systematically reporting higher cash-holdings at the turn-of-the-year fiscal quarter.
Overselling Corporate Social Responsibility
Attig, N., Hu, W., Rahaman, M., Zaman, A., 2023. Financial Management, 52, 573-610.
Synopsis: Managers window-dress CSR narratives at the turn of the fiscal year to project an overly responsible image of firms.
​
Two-sided Market Power and Firm Performance
Rahaman, M., Zhang, M., Feng, J., 2022. Journal of Business Research, 150 (November 2022), 585-605.
Synopsis: Strategic power dynamics of a firm with its customers (demand-side) and suppliers (supply-side) have significant bearings on its performance and access to financing.
The Effect of Supply Chain Power on Bank Financing
Rahaman, M., Rau, R., Zaman, A., 2020. Journal of Banking & Finance, 114 (May 2020) 105801.
Synopsis: Creditors explicitly take into account the supply chain power of a firm in its provisions for external debt financing.
Does Corporate Diversification Provide Insurance Against Economic Disruptions?
Aivazian, A., Rahaman, M., & Zhou, S., 2019. Journal of Business Research, 100 (July 2019), 218-233.
Synopsis: Conglomerates withstand economic shocks better than focused firms owing to their diversified organizational structure.
Chinese Import Competition and the Provisions for External Debt Financing in the U.S.
Rahaman, M., 2016. Journal of International Business Studies (lead article), 47(8), 898-928.
Synopsis: Engaging in international business activities via trade liberalization is a positive sum game for firms in both high- and low-wage countries.
Bank Loan Contracting and Corporate Diversification: Does Organizational Structure Matter to Lenders?
Aivazian, V., Qiu, J., & Rahaman, M., 2015. Journal of Financial Intermediation, 24(2), 252-282.
Synopsis: Conglomerates enjoy better loan-contract terms from creditors due to cash-flow co-insurance, access to internal-capital market, and reduced informational problems.
Do Managerial Behaviors Trigger Firm Exit? The Case of Hyperactive Bidders
Rahaman, M., 2014. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 54(1), 92-110.
Synopsis: Hyper acquisitive managers can substantially increase the failure risk of their firms.
The Market for CEOs: An Empirical Analysis
Aivazian, V., Lai, T., & Rahaman, M., 2013. Journal of Economics & Business, 67(May-June), 24-54.
Synopsis: CEO general-skill matrix increases firm performance, thereby leading to higher CEO compensation.
Management Quality and the Cost of Debt: Does Management Matter to Lenders?
Rahaman, M., & Zaman, A., 2013. Journal of Banking & Finance, 37(3), 854-874.
Synopsis: Middle management matters - higher-quality middle-management reduces external financing premia of financially-constrained firms.
Access to Financing and Firm Growth
Rahaman, M., 2011. Journal of Banking & Finance, 35(3), 709-723.
Synopsis: Access to external financing leads to greater employment generation by SMEs.
​
PAPERS UNDER JOURNAL REVIEW:
​
Precarious Politics and the Cost of Private Debt
Presentation: Bank and the Real Economy Conference 2018, Dubai, UAE; SMU-BNUZ Research Symposium 2018, Zhuhai, China. Canadian Economics Association Meetings 2019, Alberta, Canada.
Current status: R&R at the Review of Finance.
Synopsis: Political risk can significantly imperil a firm's ability to access external financing, providing a rationale for why some firms engage in political activism to maneuver around such risk.
​
Interest Rates, Cash Holdings, and Excess Capacity: The Case of Zero Lower Bound
Co-author: J. Feng (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Presentation: Canadian Economics Association Meetings 2024.
SSRN's Top 10 downloaded paper in Monetary Economics: Central Banks - Policies & Impacts
Synopsis: Ultra-low interest rate leads to significant misallocation of corporate cash reserves leading to excess capacity in the corporate landscape.
​
​Excessive Continuation and the Costs of Flexibility in Financial Distress
Co-author: S. Davydenko (University of Toronto).
Presentation: Western Finance Association Meetings 2009, San Diego, U.S.
Current status: Received R&R from the Review of Finance; currently as working paper.
Synopsis: Some firms are indeed worth more dead than alive.
The Real Effects of Credit Crunch: Evidence from Systemic Banking Crises
Co-authors: V. Aivazian (University of Toronto) and L. Sun (Brock University).
FMA 2011 Competitive Best Paper Award in Corporate Finance.
Presentation: Financial Management Association Meetings 2011, Denver, Colorado.
Current status: Received R&R from the Financial Management; currently in revision for an updated draft.
Synopsis: Credit contractions are costly for firms but the depth of a country's capital market can significantly attenuate such cost.
​
