Bo Becker

Bo Becker is the Cevian Capital Professor of Finance in the Department of Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics and Director if the Swedish House of Finance. Professor Becker's research is on corporate finance, especially corporate credit markets. Recent topics include corporate bank lending and bond issuance through the business cycle, credit ratings, covenant structures of loans and bonds, in-court and out-of-court restructuring, and the impact of Covid-19 on corporate credit markets. His research has been published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies and other journals. Professor Becker has been awarded several prizes and grants, including the Standard Life Prize for best paper in the ECGI Finance WP series, the Nordea Price for Best Corporate Finance Paper at the European Finance Association's annual meeting and the Lamfalussy Research Fellowship from the European Central Bank.

Professor Becker previously worked at the University of Illinois and at Harvard Business School. Professor Becker has served as an Associate Editor of the Review of Financial Studies, Management Science and Financial Management, and is Department Editor for finance at Management Science. He is a Research Fellow of Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). He previously served on the board of directors of the Swedish National Debt Office, as a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and as an expert for public inquiries into possible Swedish membership of the EU Banking Union and on the future of payment services. He serves as a member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board as well as on several non-for profit and corporate boards, including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. 

 

Publications

Dong Yan, Bo Becker, Murillo Campello, and Viktor Thell (2024). Credit Risk, Debt Overhang, and the Life Cycle of Callable Bonds, Review of Finance, vol. 28, pp. 945-985

Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina (2023). Disruption and Credit Markets, Journal of Finance, vol. 78, pp. 105 - 139

Bo Becker, Ramin Baghai and Stefan Pitschner (2022). The Use of Credit Ratings in the Delegated Management of Fixed Income Assets, Management Science, Forthcoming

Marcus Opp, Bo Becker and Farzad Saidi (2022). Regulatory forbearance in the U.S. insurance industry: The effects of removing capital requirements for an asset class. Review of Financial Studies, vol. 35, pp. 5438-5482

Bo Becker, Marieke Bos and Kasper Roszbach (2020). Bad Times, Good Credit. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, vol. 52, pp. 107-142

Ramin Baghai and Bo Becker (2020). Reputations and credit ratings—evidence from commercial mortgage-backed securities. Journal of Financial Economics, vol. 135, pp. 425-444

Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina (2017). Financial Repression in the European Sovereign Debt Crisis. Review of Finance, vol. 22, pp. 83-115

Ramin Baghai and Bo Becker (2017). Non-rating revenue and conflicts of interest. Journal of Financial Economics, vol. 127, pp. 94-112

Bo Becker and Jens Josephson (2016). Insolvency Resolution and the Missing High-Yield Bond Markets. Review of Financial Studies, vol. 29, pp. 2814-2849

Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina (2015). Reaching for Yield in the Bond Market. Journal of Finance, vol. 70, pp. 1863-1902

Bo Becker, Torbjörn Becker, Marieke Bos, Peter Englund (Ed.) and Pehr Wissén (2015). Den Svenska Skulden - SNS Konjunkturrådsrapport 2015

Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina (2014). Cyclicality of credit supply: Firm level evidence. Journal of Monetary Economics, vol. 62, pp. 76-93

Bo Becker, Marcus Jacob and Martin Jacob (2013). Payout taxes and the allocation of investments. Journal of Financial Economics. vol 107, pp. 1-24

Bo Becker, Dan Bergstresser and Guhan Subramanian (2013). Does Shareholder Proxy Access Improve Firm Value? Evidence from the Business Roundtable Challenge. Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 56, pp. 127-160

Bo Becker and Guhan Subramanian (2013). Improving Director Elections. Harvard Business Law Review, vol. 3, pp. 1-34

Bo Becker, Jinzhu Chen and David Greenberg (2013). Financial Development, Fixed Costs and International Trade.Review of Corporate Finance Studies

Bo Becker and Per Strömberg (2012). Fiduciary duties and equity-debtholder conflicts. Review of Financial Studies. vol 25, pp. 1931-1969 

Bo Becker, Henrik Cronqvist and Rudiger Fahlenbrach (2012). Estimating the effect of large shareholders using a geographic instrument. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis