Essays on the corporate bond markets.

Summary This thesis studies corporate bond financing. The results highlight the role of the legal environment and governance. The first chapter demonstrates the role of creditor protection and information in the bond market. It identifies a non-homogeneous impact across firms. The second chapter analyzes the impact of a bond issue on the value of a firm using a meta-analysis. It highlights the factors explaining results that have been divergent in the literature until now. The third chapter focuses on the Chinese corporate bond market and highlights the role of state and managerial ownership on the value created by a bond issue. Finally, the fourth chapter isolates a religious bias of professional investors, and contributes to the behavioral literature on firm value.