IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/agribz/v37y2021i2p324-347.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Survival analysis of farm bankruptcy filings: Evaluating the time to completion of chapter 12 bankruptcy cases

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Dinterman
  • Ani L. Katchova

Abstract

We examine trends in bankruptcy completion times and financial characteristics for farmers filing for chapter 12 bankruptcy after it became a permanent fixture in bankruptcy law to assess justifications for the recently enacted Family Farmer Bankruptcy Clarification Act of 2017 and Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019. Since 2007, chapter 12 filers have seen noticeable increases in their debt levels whereas alternative business bankruptcies have either stagnated or declined in their debt. Using survival analysis methods to correct for the censored nature of open cases, we find that the average time to completion has consistently been longer for chapter 12 than the comparable chapters (7, 11, and 13) of business bankruptcies. Although chapter 12 completion times have not been increasing over time, we find that chapter 7 and 11 completion times have been declining over time for comparable businesses and that debt levels are a significant factor in increased completion times. Our results are consistent with claims that farmers have had rising debt levels in comparison to similar businesses filing for bankruptcy and provide evidence that farmers with increasing debt have had a more difficult time restructuring through chapter 12. EconLit citations: G33, K35, Q14, Q18.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Dinterman & Ani L. Katchova, 2021. "Survival analysis of farm bankruptcy filings: Evaluating the time to completion of chapter 12 bankruptcy cases," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(2), pages 324-347, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:agribz:v:37:y:2021:i:2:p:324-347
    DOI: 10.1002/agr.21662
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21662
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/agr.21662?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N. Berger, Allen & F. Udell, Gregory, 1998. "The economics of small business finance: The roles of private equity and debt markets in the financial growth cycle," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 613-673, August.
    2. Lawrence E. Shepard & Robert A. Collins, 1982. "Why Do Farmers Fail? Farm Bankruptcies 1910–78," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(4), pages 609-615.
    3. Neil E. Harl, 2006. "Bankruptcy reform and the effects on chapter 12 bankruptcy for farmers (and fishermen)," Agricultural Finance Review, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 66(1), pages 7-16, May.
    4. Arturo Bris & Ivo Welch & Ning Zhu, 2006. "The Costs of Bankruptcy: Chapter 7 Liquidation versus Chapter 11 Reorganization," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1253-1303, June.
    5. Wendong Zhang & Alejandro Plastina & Wendiam Sawadgo, 2018. "Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey 1982-2017: A Thirty-five Year Perspective," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 18-wp580, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    6. Stam, Jerome M. & Dixon, Bruce L., 2004. "Farmer Bankruptcies And Farm Exits In The United States, 1899-2002," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33689, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    7. Stefania Albanesi & Jaromir B. Nosal, 2015. "Insolvency after the 2005 bankruptcy reform," Staff Reports 725, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    8. Edward R. Morrison, 2007. "Bankruptcy Decision Making: An Empirical Study of Continuation Bias in Small-Business Bankruptcies," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(2), pages 381-419.
    9. Robert W. Fairlie, 2013. "Entrepreneurship, Economic Conditions, and the Great Recession," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 207-231, June.
    10. Michelle J. White, 2009. "Bankruptcy: Past Puzzles, Recent Reforms, and the Mortgage Crisis," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 11(1), pages 1-23.
    11. Branch, Ben, 2002. "The costs of bankruptcy: A review," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 39-57.
    12. Fisher, Timothy C.G. & Martel, Jocelyn & Gavious, Ilanit, 2016. "Tax claims, government priority, absolute priority and the resolution of financial distress," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 50-58.
    13. Alston, Lee J, 1984. "Farm Foreclosure Moratorium Legislation: A Lesson from the Past," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 445-457, June.
    14. Robert Dinterman & Ani L. Katchova & James Michael Harris, 2018. "Financial stress and farm bankruptcies in US agriculture," Agricultural Finance Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 78(4), pages 441-456, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dinterman, Robert & Katchova, Ani, 2018. "Survival Analysis of Farm Bankruptcy Filings," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274117, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Dewaelheyns, Nico & Van Hulle, Cynthia, 2009. "Filtering speed in a Continental European reorganization procedure," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 375-387, December.
    3. Merton, Robert C. & Thakor, Richard T., 2022. "No-fault default, chapter 11 bankruptcy, and financial institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Lara Wemans & Manuel Coutinho Pereira, 2022. "Characteristics of parties and duration of insolvency cases in Portugal," Economic Bulletin and Financial Stability Report Articles and Banco de Portugal Economic Studies, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    5. Dubman, Robert & Key, Nigel & Law, Jonathan & Litkowski, Carrie & Mandalay, Okkar & Subedi, Dipak & Todd, Jessica E & Whitt, Christine, 2021. "Agricultural Income and Finance Situation and Outlook: 2021 Edition," Economic Information Bulletin 327362, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Mousavi, Mohammad M. & Ouenniche, Jamal & Xu, Bing, 2015. "Performance evaluation of bankruptcy prediction models: An orientation-free super-efficiency DEA-based framework," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 64-75.
    7. Régis Blazy & Nirjhar Nigam, 2019. "Corporate insolvency procedures in England: the uneasy case for liquidations," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 89-123, February.
    8. Robert Dinterman & Ani L. Katchova & James Michael Harris, 2018. "Financial stress and farm bankruptcies in US agriculture," Agricultural Finance Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 78(4), pages 441-456, February.
    9. Nico Dewaelheyns & Cynthia Hulle, 2008. "Legal reform and aggregate small and micro business bankruptcy rates: evidence from the 1997 Belgian bankruptcy code," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 409-424, December.
    10. Collins, J. Michael & Urban, Carly, 2018. "The effects of a foreclosure moratorium on loan repayment behaviors," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 73-83.
    11. Aysun, Uluc, 2014. "Bankruptcy resolution capacity and economic fluctuations," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 387-399.
    12. Srhoj, Stjepan & Kovač, Dejan & Shapiro, Jacob N. & Filer, Randall K., 2023. "The impact of delay: Evidence from formal out-of-court restructuring," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Jaka Cepec & Peter Grajzl & Katarina Zajc, 2016. "Debt Recovery in Firm Liquidations: Do Liquidation Trustees Matter?," CESifo Working Paper Series 6034, CESifo.
    14. Nico Dewaelheyns & Cynthia Van Hulle, 2010. "Bankruptcy reform: evidence from a survey among judges and receivers," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(14), pages 1367-1371.
    15. Clemente-Almendros, José A. & Sogorb-Mira, Francisco, 2018. "Costs of debt, tax benefits and a new measure of non-debt tax shields: examining debt conservatism in Spanish listed firms," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 162-175.
    16. Eric C. Davis & Ani L. Katchova, 2020. "The Impact of Bank Deregulations on Farm Financial Stress and Stability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, February.
    17. Müller, Karsten, 2022. "Busy bankruptcy courts and the cost of credit," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 824-845.
    18. Benjamin Iverson, 2018. "Get in Line: Chapter 11 Restructuring in Crowded Bankruptcy Courts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(11), pages 5370-5394, November.
    19. Florence A. Becot & Shoshanah M. Inwood, 2022. "Medical economic vulnerability: a next step in expanding the farm resilience scholarship," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 1097-1116, September.
    20. Araujo, Luis & Minetti, Raoul & Murro, Pierluigi, 2021. "Relationship finance, informed liquidity, and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:agribz:v:37:y:2021:i:2:p:324-347. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6297 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.