In early 2005, the Brazilian Congress approved a new bankruptcy law. The new legislation increased creditor protection and improved the efficiency of the bankruptcy system. This paper evaluates the empirical consequences of a bankruptcy reform on a poorly developed credit market. Using data from...

This study investigates the relationship between debtor punishment and the development of the credit market. We empirically analyze how the level of debtor punishment relates to the credit market expansion. We find evidence that an increase in debtor punishment tends to produce a positive effect...

In December 2003, the Brazilian Congress passed a law that led to a natural personal lending experiment. The law allows banks to offer loans with repayment through automatic payroll deduction, which, in effect, turns future income into collateral. We estimate the impact of the new law using auto...

This paper studies bankruptcy law in Latin America, focusing on the Brazilian reform. We start with a review of the international literature on this subject. Next we examine the economic incentives associated with several aspects of bankruptcy laws and insolvency procedures in general, as well...

This article investigates the effects of privatization under Brazil's National Privatization Program (PND) during the 1990s on companies' capital structure. Our model suggests that privatized firms increased their market leverage by 10--14% on average relative to the level before privatization....

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between corporate governance and corporate events’ performance. Firms that engage in corporate events seem to perform at least as bad as similar firms that did not. Based on agency theory, the authors hypothesize that lower...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of changes in creditors' priority defined by the bankruptcy law on firms' capital structure. Design/methodology/approach – Taking advantage of the Brazilian bankruptcy law reform as an experiment and using publicly traded firms'...

This paper studies the effect of the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform in Brazil. Using firm-level data we found that the increase in the level of creditors' protection reduced the cost of debt and increased the amount borrowed by the firms.