Demerjian (this issue) argues that a shift by U.S. standard setters towards the balance sheet
approach reduces the usefulness of balance sheet numbers for contracting. Consistent with
this argument, he provides evidence of a decline in the use of balance sheet-based
covenants in debt contracts, a useful finding. Nevertheless, I argue that the evolution of
standard-setting is more complex than this argument implies, and evaluate the economic
basis of Demerjian’s arguments for how debt contracts respond to changes in accounting
rules. One conclusion that emerges is that there are still some important open issues
regarding the economic determinants of debt contracts.