Faure-Grimaud, Antoine and Mariotti, Thomas (1999) Optimal Debt Contracts and the Single-Crossing Condition. Economics Letters, 65 (1). pp. 85-89.

Abstract

We argue that standard results proving that debt contracts can be obtained as the solution of an ex post adverse selection problem are derived without borrowers’ preferences satisfying a proper single crossing condition. For a simple example where this condition is restored, we show that the optimal financial contract is not a standard debt contract, but rather an option contract. This casts some doubts on the robustness of existing results.