Optimal Bank Capital with Costly Recapitalization*

We study optimal bank capital choice as a dynamic trade-off between the opportunity cost of equity, the loss of franchise value following a regulatory minimum capital violation, and the cost of recapitalization. We introduce a recapitalization delay that results in a strictly positive probability of capital adequacy violation. We calibrate the model to bank accounting return data and evaluate the model's ability to explain observed bank capital ratios. Differences in return volatility explain a significant fraction of the cross-sectional variation in bank capital ratios. Differences in the level of capital market imperfections across banks constitute a secondary explanation.