If Investors' Aversion to Risk Rose, Causing the Slope of the SML

question 78

True/False

If investors' aversion to risk rose, causing the slope of the SML to increase, this would have a greater impact on the required rate of return on equity, r_s, than on the interest rate on long-term debt, r_d, for most firms.Other things held constant, this would lead to an increase in the use of debt and a decrease in the use of equity.However, other things would not stay constant if firms used a lot more debt, as that would increase the riskiness of both debt and equity and thus limit the shift toward debt.

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Definitions:

Interest

The payment made for the use of (borrowed) money.

Supply of Loanable Funds

The total amount of funds available for borrowing in the economy, determined by savings and influenced by interest rates.

Perfectly Elastic

Describes a situation in demand or supply where quantity changes by an infinite amount in response to any change in price.

Economic Profits

The difference between total revenues and total costs, including both explicit and implicit costs, representing the surplus generated from business operations beyond the normal returns.