This article studies how the managers of a regulated firm can use debt and equity contracts to constrain the regulator’s policy through the contingent transfer of control to external investors with high relative liquidation value. External finance increases regulated income and facilitates...

Taking advantage of a rich database of more than 1 million companies in Spain, France and the U.K., we propose and test a hypothesis to explain why Spain has one of the world’s lowest business bankruptcy rates, even during the current economic crisis and after controlling for market exit...

The paper warns about the potential efficiency losses associated with low business bankruptcy rates (number of firms filing for bankruptcy as a proportion of the total stock of firms) and shows that welfare could be improved by increasing the protection of creditors in the bankruptcy system....

Small businesses, the majority of Spanish fi rms, rarely fi le for formal bankruptcy, and this has been the case even during the current economic crisis. This suggests that bankruptcy law has a limited role to play in the distress of small fi rms. We propose an explanation based on two premises:...

Asset securitization offers banks the possibility of altering their capital structures and the financial intermediation process. This study shows that the introduction of securitization is associated with fundamental changes in the funding policies of banks. In particular, we present evidence of...

This paper analyses the determinants of the default ratio associated to banking debt in Spanish non financial firms over the period 1992-2003. It studies the factors influencing firms' entering and exit processes in and out from the default status. Additionally, it explores the factors...