This type of one-way arbitrage activity in response to
cross-currency differences in borrowing costs is certainly
consistent with what firms claim to do. Graham and
Harvey (2001), for example, find that 44% of the firms
in their survey cite lower borrowing costs as an important
reason for issuing FC debt. Similarly, Servaes and
Tufano (2006) observe that ‘relative interest rates,’ ‘relative
credit spreads,’ and ‘expected exchange rate movements’
are among the most common reasons that firms
cite in their study for issuing debt in a foreign currency.
Likewise, Geczy et al. (2007) find that 42% of the firms in
their survey at least sometimes take positions in response
to a market view on future exchange rate or interest
rate movements