IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/ijefaa/v9y2017i12p101-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conflicts of Interest in Financial Distress: The Role of Employees

Author

Listed:
  • Wenchien Liu

Abstract

The interests of employees are not consistent with those of other stakeholders when firms are in financial distress. Hence, conflicts of interest among stakeholders are more severe, especially for those firms with strong union power, as news is reported in the media. However, little attention has been paid to the impacts of employees on bankruptcy resolutions. This study examines the impacts of employees (i.e., union power) on the conflicts of interest of distressed firms in the United States from 1983 to 2015. We find that union power has strong effects on conflicts of interest related to employees, such as asset sales, debtor-in-possession financing, successful emergence from bankruptcy, and CEO replacement. On the contrary, for conflicts of interest unrelated to employees, including the choice of bankruptcy resolution method, and conflicts of interest between creditors and debtors, we find no significant relationships. Finally, we also find a positive impact of union power on the probability of refiling for bankruptcy in the future after emerging successfully.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenchien Liu, 2017. "Conflicts of Interest in Financial Distress: The Role of Employees," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(12), pages 101-115, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:ijefaa:v:9:y:2017:i:12:p:101-115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijef/article/view/70935/39322
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijef/article/view/70935
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda, 1991. "Union negotiations and corporate policy *1: A study of labor concessions in the domestic steel industry during the 1980s," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 3-43, November.
    2. Hirsch, Barry T, 1991. "Union Coverage and Profitability among U.S. Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(1), pages 69-77, 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. Ahmad, Muhammad Farooq & Kowalewski, Oskar, 2021. "Collective bargaining power and corporate cash policy," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Chino, Atsushi, 2016. "Do labor unions affect firm payout policy?: Operating leverage and rent extraction effects," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 156-178.
    3. Richard Chung & Bryan Byung-Hee Lee & Woo-Jong Lee & Byungcherl Charlie Sohn, 2016. "Do Managers Withhold Good News from Labor Unions?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(1), pages 46-68, January.
    4. Aobdia, Daniel & Cheng, Lin, 2018. "Unionization, product market competition, and strategic disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 331-357.
    5. Jun Chen & Jamie Y. Tong & Wenming Wang & Feida Zhang, 2019. "The Economic Consequences of Labor Unionization: Evidence from Stock Price Crash Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 775-796, July.
    6. Woon Sau Leung & Jing Li & Jiong Sun, 2020. "Labor Unionization and Supply‐Chain Partners’ Performance," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(5), pages 1325-1353, May.
    7. Cardullo, Gabriele & Conti, Maurizio & Sulis, Giovanni, 2015. "Sunk capital, unions and the hold-up problem: Theory and evidence from cross-country sectoral data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 253-274.
    8. Johnson, Marilyn F. & Nelson, Karen K. & Shackell, Margaret B., 2001. "An Empirical Analysis of the SEC's 1992 Proxy Reforms on Executive Compensation," Research Papers 1679, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    9. Pezone, Vincenzo, 2017. "Unemployment Risk and Payout Policies," MPRA Paper 83918, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Omesh Kini & Mo Shen & Jaideep Shenoy & Venkat Subramaniam, 2022. "Labor Unions and Product Quality Failures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(7), pages 5403-5440, July.
    11. A. Jorge Padilla & Alejandro Requejo, 1999. "Conflicts of Interest, Employment Decisions, and Debt Restructuring: Evidence from Spanish Firms in Financial Distress," Working Papers wp1999_9910, CEMFI.
    12. Kovenock, Dan & Phillips, Gordon M, 1997. "Capital Structure and Product Market Behavior: An Examination of Plant Exit and Investment Decisions," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(3), pages 767-803.
    13. Miglani, Seema & Ahmed, Kamran & Henry, Darren, 2015. "Voluntary corporate governance structure and financial distress: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 18-30.
    14. Keishi Fujiyama, 2016. "Asset Impairment Accounting Decisions and Employee Downsizing in Japan," Discussion Paper Series DP2016-10, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Apr 2018.
    15. Sebastian Krautheim & Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr, 2016. "Wages and International Tax Competition," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 893-923, November.
    16. Min Park, 2021. "Unionized employees’ influence on executive compensation: Evidence from Korea," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(4), pages 1049-1083, December.
    17. Chil Sun Choi & Pando Sohn & Ji-Yong Seo, 2016. "Relationship between leverage and the bargaining power of labor unions: evidence from theoretical and empirical perspectives," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 43(1 Year 20), pages 53-69, June.
    18. Hamdi Ben-Nasr & Abdullah Al-Dahmash & Hamdi Ben-Nasr, 2015. "Do Labor Unions Affect Stock Price Crash Risk?," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 6(2), pages 11-22, April.
    19. Yi Si & Chongwu Xia, 2023. "The Effect of Human Capital on Stock Price Crash Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 589-609, October.
    20. (Jianqiu) Bai, John & Mkrtchyan, Anahit, 2023. "What do outside CEOs really do? Evidence from plant-level data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 27-48.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial distress; union power; bankruptcy resolution; conflicts of interest;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    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:ibn:ijefaa:v:9:y:2017:i:12:p:101-115. 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: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.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.