Empirical evidence suggests that banks often engage in refinancing of intrinsically insolvent debtors instead of writing of their non-performing loans. Such forbearance lending may induce soft budget constraints for the debtors, as it diminishes their incentives to thwart default. This paper...

This paper empirically analyzes the determinants of credit default swap (CDS) spreads from a sample of 45 listed European banks over the 2004-2010 period. We use variables related to accounting- and market-based data, an indicator of liquidity in the CDS market and several variables from the...

Using the state-level adoption of anti-recharacterization laws (ARLs), this paper examines how strengthening the rights of some creditors affects other creditors’ claims. The adoption of an ARL significantly increases the rights of securitization creditors by denying bankruptcy court judges’...

I examine how credit reporting affects where firms access credit and how lenders contract with them. I use within firm-time and lender-time tests that exploit lenders joining a credit bureau and sharing information in a staggered pattern. I find information sharing reduces relationship-switching...

Previous studies suggest that Japanese suppliers of capital, such as main banks, have private sources of information, and thus, the quality of public accounting information may be less relevant to their decisions. Studies also indicate that the firm–bank relationship in Japan has weakened with...

This paper studies bank competition with borrower adverse selection. In the model, expected non-performing loan costs are high when credit is granted in booms, when risk free rates are low, or when competition is strong. I prove that full competition is suboptimal due to this last effect; that...

We examine how creditor rights affect the trade-off between non-debt and debt tax shields. Using four bankruptcy reforms, a panel of private and public firms, and tax return data from Italy, we show that laws empowering creditors reduce tax avoidance and increase debt financing, consistent with...

As a follow-up study to the author’s previous paper on “Nonperforming Loans in CESEE – What Do They Comprise?”, the present contribution focuses on the definitions of nonperforming loans (NPLs) in a number of Western European nations – Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,...

This study builds on two previous studies the author contributed to Focus on European Economic Integration (FEEI), namely “Nonperforming Loans in CESEE – What Do They Comprise?” (Barisitz, 2011) and “Nonperforming Loans in Western Europe – A Selective Comparison of National...

This study attempts to shed comparative light on nonperforming loans (NPLs) by analyzing the loan classification systems in ten Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries, namely Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and...