This paper examines the phenomenon of management-initiated, court-supervised reorganization of companies in U.S. bankruptcy court. The proposed in-court persuasion mechanism reconciles excessive reorganizations of non-viable companies (and subsequent repeat failures) with management-initiated...

In this paper we study firm dynamics and industry equilibrium when firms under financial distress face a non-trivial choice between alternative bankruptcy procedures. Given limited commitment and asymmetric information, financial contracts specify default, renegotiation and reorganization...

This research investigates how legal sanctions prevailing under bankruptcy impact on debt contracting and on investing decision, when companies may engage faulty management. Unlike most papers considering a passive behavior of the bank in case of default of the borrower, the creditor and the...

Policy efforts to revitalise entrepreneurship and investment in Spain are key to generating growth and new jobs. The government has a substantial reform program to make it easier to do business in Spain, which should in some cases be deepened. Boosting economic growth requires a new generation...

Firms file for reorganization bankruptcy (Chapter 11) to restructure, not only debt, but also, labor contracts. In this environment, pro-creditor bankruptcy reforms face a trade-off: they increase recovery values of successful reorganizations but suffocate managers' incentives to restructure...

This paper examines firm-level determinants of mature firm exits after economic distress. Using nested logit models and a sample of 6,118 distress-related exits in Belgium, we analyze the type of exit that distressed firms experience. We show that 41% of the firms in our sample exit through a...

Private Equity restructuring of companies using debt finance has been criticised for increasing financial distress and bankruptcy in the corporate sector and this was especially so in the aftermath of the financial crisis. We build a unique data set comprising the population of over eight...

We construct a mortality table for U.S. public companies during 1985–2006. We find that firms' age-specific mortality rates initially increase, peaking at age three, and then decrease with age, implying that the first three years of public life are critical. Financial intermediaries involved...

This paper provides new insights on the determinants of firm exit after distress. Using nested logit models and a sample of 6118 distress-related exits from Belgium, we analyze the impacts of available and potential slack and the relative efficiency of voluntary liquidation, compared to...