Essays On The Corporate Bond Markets

This dissertation studies the corporate bond market. Results emphasize the role of legal environment and governance. The first chapter demonstrates the role of creditors' protection and information on the corporate bond market. It identifies a non-homogenous impact across firms. The second chapter uses a meta-analysis to scrutinize the effect of a bond offering on the firm's value. It stresses the reasons underlying diverging results in the literature so far. The third chapter focuses on the Chinese corporate bond market and highlights the role of state and management ownership on the value created by a bond offering. The fourth chapter isolates a religious bias from professional investors and contributes to the literature on the impact of behavioural biases on the firm's value.