leverage and provides an innovative firm-level approach to endogenously identify the threshold leverage beyond which corporate … productivity (TFP) growth increases with leverage until it reaches a critical threshold. Beyond this threshold, higher leverage … lowers TFP growth. -- excess leverage ; bank efficiency ; market capitalisation ; TFP growth …

This article reviews the origin and spread of the distressed debt problem in the transition region. We argue that while … the crisis was triggered abroad, the current high level of distressed debt in various transition countries mainly reflects … home-grown vulnerabilities. As in the West, the root causes of the debt problem were abundant and cheap funding and a …