We document that suppliers to purely financially distressed companies that are highly likely to reorganize in bankruptcy incur little or no spillover costs. In contrast, suppliers to economically distressed firms experience large losses in market value which are linked to proxies for the cost of...

We use a simple proxy to distinguish between financial and economic distress and show that Chapter 11 outcomes and asset restructurings vary systematically across these firm types. The results from our sample of large bankruptcies from 1991 to 2004 are consistent with the view that the Chapter...