IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aic/revebs/y2016j17liaoq.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring Financial Distress And Predicting Corporate Bankruptcy: An Index Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Qunfeng LIAO

    (School of Management, The University of Michigan-Flint, 303 E. Kearsley Street, Flint, MI 48502, (810) 762-3266, qunliao@umflint.edu)

  • Seyed MEHDIAN

    (School of Management, The University of Michigan-Flint, 303 E. Kearsley Street, Flint, MI 48502, (810) 762-3266, qunliao@umflint.edu)

Abstract

In this paper, we follow Anderson et al. (2009) and suggest a simple approach to employ a set of financial ratios as inputs to estimate an aggregate bankruptcy index (ABI). This index is a within sample measure, ranges between 0 and 1, and ranks the firms on the basis of their relative financial distress. ABI can be used to predict the propensity of financial failure and corporate bankruptcy. For the purpose of comparison and assessment of the robustness of this index, we estimate Z-score by multivariate discriminant analysis, using the same set of financial ratios to compare the predictive accuracy of two approaches. We find that, to some extent, ABI can predict the bankruptcy of the firms more accurately than Z-score. The empirical results of the paper suggest that ABI has relatively robust predictive power and, therefore, can be applied together with other, based on parametric and non-parametric models to predict corporate bankruptcy.

Suggested Citation

  • Qunfeng LIAO & Seyed MEHDIAN, 2016. "Measuring Financial Distress And Predicting Corporate Bankruptcy: An Index Approach," Review of Economic and Business Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 17, pages 33-51, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:aic:revebs:y:2016:j:17:liaoq
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://rebs.feaa.uaic.ro/articles/pdfs/199.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edmister, Robert O., 1972. "An Empirical Test of Financial Ratio Analysis for Small Business Failure Prediction," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 1477-1493, March.
    2. Altman, Edward I. & Haldeman, Robert G. & Narayanan, P., 1977. "ZETATM analysis A new model to identify bankruptcy risk of corporations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 29-54, June.
    3. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    4. Premachandra, I.M. & Bhabra, Gurmeet Singh & Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki, 2009. "DEA as a tool for bankruptcy assessment: A comparative study with logistic regression technique," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 193(2), pages 412-424, March.
    5. Lennox, Clive, 1999. "Identifying failing companies: a re-evaluation of the logit, probit and DA approaches," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 347-364, July.
    6. Beaver, Wh, 1968. "Market Prices, Financial Ratios, And Prediction Of Failure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(2), pages 179-192.
    7. Zhang, Guoqiang & Y. Hu, Michael & Eddy Patuwo, B. & C. Indro, Daniel, 1999. "Artificial neural networks in bankruptcy prediction: General framework and cross-validation analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 16-32, July.
    8. Cielen, Anja & Peeters, Ludo & Vanhoof, Koen, 2004. "Bankruptcy prediction using a data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(2), pages 526-532, April.
    9. Anderson, Ronald C. & Duru, Augustine & Reeb, David M., 2009. "Founders, heirs, and corporate opacity in the United States," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 205-222, May.
    10. James P. Bedingfield & Philip M. J. Reckers & A. J. Stagliano, 1985. "Distributions Of Financial Ratios In The Commercial Banking Industry," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 8(1), pages 77-81, March.
    11. Ruey-Ching Hwang & Huimin Chung & Jiun-Yi Ku, 2013. "Predicting Recurrent Financial Distresses with Autocorrelation Structure: An Empirical Analysis from an Emerging Market," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 43(3), pages 321-341, June.
    12. Mensah, Ym, 1984. "An Examination Of The Stationarity Of Multivariate Bankruptcy Prediction Models - A Methodological Study," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 380-395.
    13. Jackson, Richard H.G. & Wood, Anthony, 2013. "The performance of insolvency prediction and credit risk models in the UK: A comparative study," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 183-202.
    14. Shumway, Tyler, 2001. "Forecasting Bankruptcy More Accurately: A Simple Hazard Model," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(1), pages 101-124, January.
    15. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    16. Edward I. Altman & Ben Branch, 2015. "The Bankruptcy System's Chapter 22 Recidivism Problem: How Serious is It?," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 50(1), pages 1-26, January.
    17. Ohlson, Ja, 1980. "Financial Ratios And The Probabilistic Prediction Of Bankruptcy," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 109-131.
    18. Zmijewski, Me, 1984. "Methodological Issues Related To The Estimation Of Financial Distress Prediction Models," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22, pages 59-82.
    19. Johnsen, Thomajean & Melicher, Ronald W., 1994. "Predicting corporate bankruptcy and financial distress: Information value added by multinomial logit models," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 269-286, October.
    20. Agarwal, Vineet & Taffler, Richard, 2008. "Comparing the performance of market-based and accounting-based bankruptcy prediction models," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1541-1551, August.
    21. Scott, James, 1981. "The probability of bankruptcy: A comparison of empirical predictions and theoretical models," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 317-344, September.
    22. Wu, Y. & Gaunt, C. & Gray, S., 2010. "A comparison of alternative bankruptcy prediction models," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 34-45.
    23. Charitou, Andreas & Dionysiou, Dionysia & Lambertides, Neophytos & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2013. "Alternative bankruptcy prediction models using option-pricing theory," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2329-2341.
    24. Edward I. Altman, 1973. "Predicting Railroad Bankruptcies in America," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 4(1), pages 184-211, Spring.
    25. Altman, Edward I. & Marco, Giancarlo & Varetto, Franco, 1994. "Corporate distress diagnosis: Comparisons using linear discriminant analysis and neural networks (the Italian experience)," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 505-529, May.
    26. Li, Ming-Yuan Leon & Miu, Peter, 2010. "A hybrid bankruptcy prediction model with dynamic loadings on accounting-ratio-based and market-based information: A binary quantile regression approach," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 818-833, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Serrano-Cinca, Carlos & Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Bernate-Valbuena, Martha, 2019. "The use of accounting anomalies indicators to predict business failure," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 353-375.
    2. Chuanzhen Li & Liang Zhao & Yiwen Zhang, 2024. "Economic policy uncertainty and cash dividend policy: evidence from China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Javed Iqbal & Furrukh Bashir & Rashid Ahmad & Hina Arshad, 2022. "Predicting Bankruptcy through Neural Network:Case of PSX Listed Companies," iRASD Journal of Management, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 4(2), pages 299-315, june.
    4. Lucie Kureková & Pavlína Hejduková, 2016. "Construction Industry and Payment Discipline in the Czech Republic," European Financial and Accounting Journal, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2016(3), pages 53-68.
    5. Munene Halldess Nguta & Ken Mugambi, 2021. "Analysis of the Related Party Transactions interms of managerial and financial issues for the Kenyan Savings and Credit Cooperatives," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(1), pages 48-61, January.
    6. Halldess Nguta Munene & James Ndegwa & Thomas Senaji & Kenneth M. Mugambi, 2020. "Influence of Board Characteristics on Financial Distress of Deposit Taking SACCOs in Nairobi County, Kenya," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 9(4), pages 97-110, October.
    7. Kong, Qunxi & Li, Rongrong & Wang, Ziqi & Peng, Dan, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and firm investment decisions: Dilemma or opportunity?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

    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. Şaban Çelik, 2013. "Micro Credit Risk Metrics: A Comprehensive Review," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 233-272, October.
    2. fernández, María t. Tascón & gutiérrez, Francisco J. Castaño, 2012. "Variables y Modelos Para La Identificación y Predicción Del Fracaso Empresarial: Revisión de La Investigación Empírica Reciente," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 7-58.
    3. Nawaf Almaskati & Ron Bird & Yue Lu & Danny Leung, 2019. "The Role of Corporate Governance and Estimation Methods in Predicting Bankruptcy," Working Papers in Economics 19/16, University of Waikato.
    4. Mohammad Mahdi Mousavi & Jamal Ouenniche, 2018. "Multi-criteria ranking of corporate distress prediction models: empirical evaluation and methodological contributions," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 271(2), pages 853-886, December.
    5. Şaban Çelik & Bora Aktan & Bruce Burton, 2022. "Firm dynamics and bankruptcy processes: A new theoretical model," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 567-591, April.
    6. Maurice Peat & Stewart Jones, 2012. "Using Neural Nets To Combine Information Sets In Corporate Bankruptcy Prediction," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 90-101, April.
    7. Serrano-Cinca, Carlos & Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Bernate-Valbuena, Martha, 2019. "The use of accounting anomalies indicators to predict business failure," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 353-375.
    8. Mohammad Mahdi Mousavi & Jamal Ouenniche & Kaoru Tone, 2023. "A dynamic performance evaluation of distress prediction models," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(4), pages 756-784, July.
    9. Duc Hong Vo & Binh Ninh Vo Pham & Chi Minh Ho & Michael McAleer, 2019. "Corporate Financial Distress of Industry Level Listings in Vietnam," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, September.
    10. Jackson, Richard H.G. & Wood, Anthony, 2013. "The performance of insolvency prediction and credit risk models in the UK: A comparative study," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 183-202.
    11. Bhanu Pratap Singh & Alok Kumar Mishra, 2016. "Re-estimation and comparisons of alternative accounting based bankruptcy prediction models for Indian companies," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 2(1), pages 1-28, December.
    12. Dimitras, A. I. & Zanakis, S. H. & Zopounidis, C., 1996. "A survey of business failures with an emphasis on prediction methods and industrial applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 487-513, May.
    13. Almaskati, Nawaf & Bird, Ron & Yeung, Danny & Lu, Yue, 2021. "A horse race of models and estimation methods for predicting bankruptcy," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    14. Leila Bateni & Farshid Asghari, 2020. "Bankruptcy Prediction Using Logit and Genetic Algorithm Models: A Comparative Analysis," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 335-348, January.
    15. Li, Chunyu & Lou, Chenxin & Luo, Dan & Xing, Kai, 2021. "Chinese corporate distress prediction using LASSO: The role of earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    16. Casado Yusta, Silvia & Nœ–ez Letamendía, Laura & Pacheco Bonrostro, Joaqu’n Antonio, 2018. "Predicting Corporate Failure: The GRASP-LOGIT Model || Predicci—n de la quiebra empresarial: el modelo GRASP-LOGIT," Revista de Métodos Cuantitativos para la Economía y la Empresa = Journal of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, vol. 26(1), pages 294-314, Diciembre.
    17. Balcaen, Sofie & Ooghe, Hubert, 2006. "35 years of studies on business failure: an overview of the classic statistical methodologies and their related problems," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 63-93.
    18. du Jardin, Philippe, 2015. "Bankruptcy prediction using terminal failure processes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(1), pages 286-303.
    19. Evangelos C. Charalambakis, 2015. "On the Prediction of Corporate Financial Distress in the Light of the Financial Crisis: Empirical Evidence from Greek Listed Firms," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 407-428, November.
    20. Adler Haymans Manurung & Derwin Suhartono & Benny Hutahayan & Noptovius Halimawan, 2023. "Probability Bankruptcy Using Support Vector Regression Machines," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 13(1), pages 1-3.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate bankruptcy prediction; financial distress; aggregate bankruptcy index;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    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:aic:revebs:y:2016:j:17:liaoq. 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: Sireteanu Napoleon-Alexandru (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feaicro.html .

    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.