1. Introduction
Recent years have seen striking changes in covenant inclusion in debt contracts. In 1996, financial covenants measured
with balance sheet variables—including Leverage, Net Worth, and Current Ratio—were included in more than 80% of
private debt contracts.1 In the intervening years, their use declined sharply, to only 32% of deals by 2007. The same trend is
not apparent for other types of financial covenants. For example, covenants measured with income statement ratios—such
as Interest Coverage, Fixed Charge Coverage, and Debt-to-Earnings—have been included in between 74% and 82% of deals
over the same period, displaying no declining trend in use (see Fig. 1).
This trend in covenant use has been accompanied by a change in the direction of accounting standard setting. Based in
large part on the FASB’s Conceptual Framework, the objective of standard setting has shifted from the determination of net
income (the income statement approach) to the valuation of assets and liabilities (the balance sheet approach). As
described in Dichev (2008), the conceptual focus on the balance sheet has been accompanied by a variety of new
accounting standards, including changes in accounting for goodwill and asset securitization as well as expanded
recognition rules for hedge accounting. There has also been broader adoption of fair value accounting, in which many
financial assets and liabilities are recognized on the balance sheet at market price rather than historical cost. Recent