In order to test our predictions, we use an experiment to examine how capitalizing optional renewal periods affects lenders’ credit decisions. In the experiment, participants are asked to examine a firm that has a fixed-term lease with optional renewal periods and determine whether they would rather lend to this firm or to a similar firm that owns, rather than leases, real estate. We then manipulate whether the fixed term and the optional renewal periods are accounted for as a single unit of account. Thus, participants view financial statements in which the rights and obligations that will be associated with the optional renewal periods, if later exercised, either are or are not added to the present rights and obligations arising from the fixed term of the lease arrangement