Based on a sample of highly leveraged Austrian ski hotels undergoing debt restructurings, we show that reducing a debt overhang leads to a significant improvement in operating performance. Changes in leverage in the debt restructurings are instrumented with Unexpected Snow, which captures the...

Using a sample of highly (over-)leveraged Austrian ski hotels undergoing debt restructurings, we show that reducing a debt overhang leads to a significant improvement in operating performance (return on assets, net profit margin). In particular, a reduction in leverage leads to a decrease in...

Die vorliegende Dissertation umfasst drei empirische Aufsätze in den Bereichen Kreditrisiko und Corporate Finance. Der erste Aufsatz vergleicht zwei verschiedene Möglichkeiten im Umgang mit einer hohen Zahl von möglichen Erklärungsvariablen für Unternehmensausfälle. Typischerweise wird in...

This paper examines whether reducing a debt overhang improves borrowers' operating performance using a sample of distressed and highly overleveraged Austrian ski hotels undergoing debt restructurings. The vast majority of the ski hotels experience substantial debt forgiveness, resulting in...

In this paper we develop a novel bank failure prediction approach that uses the output of a multiperiod logit model to assess banks' risk situations and then estimates a survival time model for the subset of at-risk (quot;illquot;) banks. Our empirical analysis reveals that this two-step...

Should banks be diversified or focused? Does diversification indeed lead to increased performance and therefore greater safety on the part of banks as traditional portfolio and banking theory would suggest? This paper investigates the link between banks' profitability and their portfolio...

In this paper models of default prediction conditional on financial statements of Austrian firms are presented. Apart from giving a discussion on the suggested 65 variables the issue of potential problems in developing rating models is raised and possible solutions are reviewed. A unique data...