Federal Deposit InsuranceCorporation• Center for Financial Researchh
Sanjiv R. Das
Darrell Duffie
Nikunj Kapadia
Risk-Based Capital Standards,
Deposit Insurance and Procyclicality
Risk-Based Capital Standards,
Deposit Insurance and Procyclicality
FDIC Center for Financial Research
Working Paper
No. 2005-14
Asset Salability and Debt Maturity: Evidence from 19th Century
American Railroads*
State-
Efraim Benmel Efraim Benmelech
May, 2005
June 20
May , 2005 Asset S2005-14
Sanjiv R. Das
Darrell Duffie
Nikunj Kapadia
Risk-Based Capital Standards,
Deposit Insurance and Procyclicality
Risk-Based Capital Standards,
Deposit Insurance and Procyclicality
FDIC Center for Financial Research
Working Paper
No. 2005-14
Asset Salability and Debt Maturity: Evidence from 19th Century
American Railroads*
State-
Efraim Benmel Efraim Benmelech
May, 2005
June 20
May , 2005 Asset S2005-14
Asset Salability and Debt Maturity:
Evidence from 19th Century American Railroads∗
Efraim Benmelech
Harvard University
∗I have greatly benefited from the support and guidance of Douglas Diamond and Raghu Rajan. I am grateful to the
members of my dissertation committee: Douglas Diamond (Chair), Douglas Baird, Steve Kaplan, Toby Moskowitz,
Raghu Rajan and Luigi Zingales. I also appreciate comments by Lauren Cohen, Eugene Kandel, Anil Kashyap,
Randall Kroszner, Carlos Ram ́ırez, Per Str ̈omberg, Ren ́e Stulz, Peter Tufano, Annette Vissing-Jørgensen, Marc Wei-
denmier, Mark Weinstein, seminar participants at Boston College, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard (Economics
and HBS), Hebrew University, Kellogg, Lehman Brothers, Princeton, NYU, Stanford, University of Chicago, UCLA,
Wharton, Yale, the NBER’s Universities Research Conference on Developing and Sustaining Financial Markets 1820-
2000 and the Center for Financial Research at the FDIC. Last but not least, I thank my colleagues at the doctoral
program for insightful discussions and constructive feedback on an earlier version. All errors are my own. I acknowl-
edge financial support from the FDIC’s Center for Financial Research, and from the Lehman Brothers Fellowship for
Research Excellence in Finance.
Correspondence to: Efraim Benmelech, Department of Economics, Harvard University, Littauer Center, Cam-
bridge, MA 02138. E-mail: effi benmelech@harvard.edu
Evidence from 19th Century American Railroads∗
Efraim Benmelech
Harvard University
∗I have greatly benefited from the support and guidance of Douglas Diamond and Raghu Rajan. I am grateful to the
members of my dissertation committee: Douglas Diamond (Chair), Douglas Baird, Steve Kaplan, Toby Moskowitz,
Raghu Rajan and Luigi Zingales. I also appreciate comments by Lauren Cohen, Eugene Kandel, Anil Kashyap,
Randall Kroszner, Carlos Ram ́ırez, Per Str ̈omberg, Ren ́e Stulz, Peter Tufano, Annette Vissing-Jørgensen, Marc Wei-
denmier, Mark Weinstein, seminar participants at Boston College, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard (Economics
and HBS), Hebrew University, Kellogg, Lehman Brothers, Princeton, NYU, Stanford, University of Chicago, UCLA,
Wharton, Yale, the NBER’s Universities Research Conference on Developing and Sustaining Financial Markets 1820-
2000 and the Center for Financial Research at the FDIC. Last but not least, I thank my colleagues at the doctoral
program for insightful discussions and constructive feedback on an earlier version. All errors are my own. I acknowl-
edge financial support from the FDIC’s Center for Financial Research, and from the Lehman Brothers Fellowship for
Research Excellence in Finance.
Correspondence to: Efraim Benmelech, Department of Economics, Harvard University, Littauer Center, Cam-
bridge, MA 02138. E-mail: effi benmelech@harvard.edu