This thesis makes two main contributions to the literature. The first is to establish the existence of a capital supply channel, in particular a bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in the UK using a clean measure of bank loan supply. In this study we exploit the revealed debt preferences of debt issuing firms by using the Becker and Ivashina (2014) fixed effects framework to isolate the impact of credit supply. By conditioning the sample on non-financial firms whose debt issuance is observed, we are able to eliminate the effects of credit demand and to isolate a clean measure for bank loan supply. In this thesis, we find that the tendency by unconstrained, non-financial firms to substitute corporate bonds for bank loans at different points of the financial cycle reflects changes in bank loan supply. We also find that the patterns of substitutability are consistent among more granular classifications of heterogeneous debt. Our results reveal that among unconstrained firms, the proportion of new bank loan issuance declines, while the proportions of corporate bonds and program debt issuance tend to increase, when faced with unfavourable credit market conditions. We then create a loan to bond substitution measure based on observed substitution behaviour of unconstrained firms. We find that this measure explains the out of sample bank loan issuance behaviour of constrained firms. As a result we conclude that the measure is able to cleanly capture changes in bank loan supply. We extend the study to examine the impact of bank loan supply on the financing, hiring and investment decisions of UK non-financial corporations. We find that bank loan supply disruptions significantly and disproportionately affect the hiring and inventory investment decisions of bank dependent firms relative to those of non-bank dependent firms. The propensity to invest or hire among bank dependent UK non-financial firms declines relative to non-bank dependent firms when bank loan supply deteriorates. Moreover, the fixed investment decisions of non-bank dependent firms tend to decline following adverse bank loan supply shocks. These results confirm the existence of a bank lending channel among UK non-financial firms, and the findings are in line with the narrow credit view of monetary policy transmission. Our second central contribution is to analyse the impact of orthogonal QE shocks, credit supply shocks, credit demand shocks, and monetary policy shocks on the aggregate debt issuance behaviour of UK non-financial firms. Using structural vector error correction models (SVECM), we show that QE shocks increase corporate bond issuance and compress term spreads, but have no effect on the policy rate. Moreover, we observe that unexpected increases in the monetary policy rate lead to a decline in corporate bonds in the short term. While credit supply shocks move aggregate bank lending and aggregate corporate bond issuance in the same direction, corporate bond issuance responds with a lag to fluctuation in credit supply. This implies that adverse credit supply shocks may produce amplified negative effects on capital supply as both corporate bonds and bank loan decline. We also establish a counterfactual for corporate bonds and bank loan issues based on our structural model. We find that the QE policies result in the Bank of England averting a decline in corporate bond issuance of between 3% and 10% during the QE period. Our findings in this thesis point towards the existence of a portfolio balance channel of QE that operates in the UK corporate bond markets during the QE period.

This study examines how the stock market reacts when a publicly-listed company announces a corporate green bond issuance in the European market. We examine 155 corporate green bond issuance announcements from 2017 to 2021 made by companies listed on the European stock exchange. Our findings can not confirm a stock market reaction to the announcement of a corporate green bond. The result shows no significant positive stock market reaction when a company announces a corporate green bond issuance for the first time. This finding suggests that the signaling argument is not necessarily applicable, as it suggests that companies signal their environmental commitment to the investors by announcing a corporate green bond issuance. Our findings do neither show a stronger stock market reaction due to a company having a low environmental performance at the time of announcement. This means that companies that actively try to transition into climate-friendly financing are not rewarded by the stock market.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the debt capital market in Sweden experienced rapid growth, resulting in a doubling of its size. In recent years, real estate companies have become increasingly dependent on financing through the capital markets. As a result, the interdependence between the real estate and financial sectors has significantly increased. Today, the real estate market constitutes for around 50 per cent of the Swedish corporate bond market. In 2023, approximately SEK 100 bn worth of bonds are expected to mature, followed by around SEK 150 bn set to mature in 2024, compelling Sweden's property companies to implement significant alterations to their methods of financing operations. This study aims to analyse the current state of the Swedish real estate bond market, as well as an examination of opportunities and risks for investors given the current market situation. The research questions follows: What are the current characteristics of the Swedish real estate bond market? What opportunities and risks are present in the Swedish real estate bond market for investors? The study is limited to the corporate real estate bond market in Sweden, with a particular emphasis on Swedish issuers and financiers. A combination of a qualitative and quantitative method was conducted, and the study adopts an abductive approach. The findings revealed that the Swedish real estate bond market holds a prominent role in the corporate bond market and is characterised as a young market that has undergone significant growth. It presents opportunities for alternative financing, investing in distressed real estate assets, promoting sustainability and better returns from a risk-reward perspective. From a risk perspective there are several risks: the challenge of refinancing, a change in market conditions thus increasing capital costs, the credit risk, the liquidity risk, credit ratings downgrades, risk of valuations, sceptical investors and creative capital structures in the Swedish real estate market and the bond market. / I efterdyningarna av finanskrisen 2008 upplevde den svenska skuldkapitalmarknaden en snabb tillväxt, vilket resulterade i en fördubbling av dess storlek. Fastighetsbolagens ökade beroende av kapitalmarknaderna för upplåning de senaste åren har ökat exponeringen mellan fastighets- och finanssektorn. Idag utgör fastighetssektorn cirka 50 procent av den svenska företagsobligationsmarknaden. År 2023 förväntas cirka 100 miljarder kronor i obligationer förfalla, följt av cirka 150 miljarder kronor år 2024, vilket tvingar Sveriges fastighetsbolag att genomföra betydande förändringar i sina finansieringsstrukturer. Denna studie syftar till att analysera det aktuella läget på den svenska fastighetsobligationsmarknaden, samt dess möjligheter och risker för investerare. Forskningsfrågorna följer: Vilka är de nuvarande karaktärsdragen hos den svenska fastighetsobligationsmarknaden? Vilka möjligheter och risker finns på den svenska fastighetsobligationsmarknaden för investerare? Studien är begränsad till företagsfastighetsobligationsmarknaden i Sverige, med särskild tonvikt på svenska emittenter och finansiärer. En kombination av en kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod genomfördes och studien antar ett abduktivt tillvägagångssätt. Resultatet avslöjade att den svenska fastighetsobligationsmarknaden har en framträdande roll på företagsobligationsmarknaden och karaktäriseras som en ung marknad som har genomgått betydande tillväxt. Det ger möjligheter till alternativ finansiering, investeringar i nödställda fastighetstillgångar, främjar hållbarhet och bättre avkastning ur ett risk-belöningsperspektiv. Ur ett riskperspektiv finns det flera risker: utmaning med refinansiering, förändrade marknadsförhållanden som ökar kapitalkostnaderna, kreditrisk, likviditetsrisk, skeptiska investerare, nedgraderingar av kreditbetyg, risk för värderingar och kreativa kapitalstrukturer på den svenska fastighetsmarknaden och obligationsmarknaden.