Small businesses, the majority of Spanish firms, rarely file for formal bankruptcy when dealing with financial distress …. This is why business bankruptcy rates in Spain are among the lowest in the world, even during the current economic crisis …. To explain this fact we present the following hypothesis. Filing for bankruptcy in Spain is very costly for both small …

the Spanish bankruptcy system relative to that of an alternative insolvency institution, the mortgage system, and the … a hypothesis to explain why Spain has one of the world’s lowest business bankruptcy rates, even during the current … unattractiveness of the personal bankruptcy law ; Utilizando una amplia base de datos de más de 1 millón de empresas españolas …

as follows. The low efficiency and low creditor protection of the Spanish bankruptcy system relative to those of an … liquidaciones ineficientes ; The paper warns about the potential efficiency losses associated with low business bankruptcy rates … (number of fi rms filing for bankruptcy as a proportion of the total stock of firms) and shows that welfare could be improved …

corporativa y personal ; Small businesses, the majority of Spanish firms, rarely file for formal bankruptcy, and this has been the … case even during the current economic crisis. This suggests that bankruptcy law has a limited role to play in the distress … of small firms. We propose an explanation based on two premises: (i) bankruptcy procedures are more costly and drawn out …