We analyse a sample of 6 million firm-year observations of large corporations and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) spanning 6 European countries from 2005 to 2015, to determine the impact of leverage and different sources of funding on default risk. We find that financial leverage has a...

I employ a variety of machine learning techniques to predict corporate bankruptcies. I compare machine learning techniques' predictions with the ones of reduced-form regressions and structural models. To assess the performances of different models, I compute a range of scores both in-sample and...

We investigate the impact of banking competition on corporate credit risk. Although banking competition does not, on average, affect corporate bankruptcy rates, we find that it causes corporate bankruptcies to increase significantly for high-leverage firms. This effect lasts up to eight years...

We investigate the impact of deregulation-induced banking competition on corporate credit risk. Although banking competition does not, on average, affect corporate bankruptcy rates, we find that it causes corporate bankruptcies to increase significantly for high-leverage firms. This effect lasts...

We investigate the impact of escalating temperature and heavy rainfall on the default probability of small and micro firms (SMiEs) in six European countries from 2005 to 2014. Our findings reveal that a one standard deviation increase (2.56°C) in the yearly mean temperature amplifies a firm’s...