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The Bankruptcy Decision and Debt Contract Renegotiations

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  • Elazar Berkovitch
  • Ronen Israel

Abstract

We consider the bankruptcy law and workout practices in the United States and model bankruptcy as a strategic decision. We analyze a firm's choice between liquidation under Chapter 7, renegotiation of the debt contract in a workout, and reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. Our premise is that a financially distressed firm chooses its action in order to minimize the loss in value caused by the well-known over- and under-investment problems. We show that the firm initiates a workout when it faces under-investment, and commences Chapter 11 when it faces over-investment. Some of the results are: (i) in default, total firm value and equity value increase upon the announcement of a workout and decrease upon the announcement of Chapter 11; (ii) firms with shorter maturity of debt are more likely to reorganize in a workout; (iii) among the firms that renegotiate their debt contract, the proportion of firms entering Chapter 11 is higher for firms in mature industries than for firms in growth industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Elazar Berkovitch & Ronen Israel, 1998. "The Bankruptcy Decision and Debt Contract Renegotiations," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 2(1), pages 1-27.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:revfin:v:2:y:1998:i:1:p:1-27.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1009738110075
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    Cited by:

    1. Sumio Hirose, 2009. "Effects of the Bankruptcy Laws Reform on Banks : The examination of recent Japanese experience," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 5(2), pages 201-228, November.
    2. Lucian Arye Bebchuk, 2002. "Ex Ante Costs of Violating Absolute Priority in Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 445-460, February.
    3. Kalay, Avner & Singhal, Rajeev & Tashjian, Elizabeth, 2007. "Is Chapter 11 costly?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 772-796, June.
    4. Godlewski, Christophe J., 2015. "The certification value of private debt renegotiation and the design of financial contracts: Empirical evidence from Europe," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-17.
    5. Nicolae STEF, 2013. "Severity of the Voting Rules in Bankruptcy," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2013-07, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    6. Bebchuk, Lucian Arye, 2001. "Ex Ante Costs of Violating Absolute Priority in Bankruptcy," CEPR Discussion Papers 2914, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Pascal François & Alon Raviv, 2014. "Heterogeneous Beliefs and the Choice Between Private Restructuring and Formal Bankruptcy," Cahiers de recherche 1401, CIRPEE.
    8. In Heo & So Sohn & Eun Ji, 2014. "Effects of the matching fund program on IPO and bankruptcy of SMEs in Korea," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 117-129, January.
    9. Somoza, Antonio, 2021. "The influence of the vulnerability of sectors on their survival and probability of insolvency: the case of small and medium entities in Spain || La influencia de la vulnerabilidad de los sectores en s," 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. 32(1), pages 148-174, December.
    10. Dong-Kyoon Kim & Chuck Kwok, 2009. "The influence of managerial incentives on the resolution of financial distress," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 61-83, January.
    11. Nicolae Stef, 2023. "Bankruptcy voting process and corporate reorganization," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 508-524, April.
    12. Bharath, Sreedhar T. & Panchapegesan, Venky & Werner, Ingrid, 2007. "The Changing Nature of Chapter 11," Working Paper Series 2008-4, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    13. Chen-Yin Kuo, 2018. "Does Accounting Conservatism Reduce Default Risk? Evidence from Taiwan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(4), pages 227-242.
    14. Timothy C.G. Fisher & Jocelyn Martel, 2012. "The Impact of Debtor-Friendly Reforms on the Performance of a Reorganization Procedure," Working Papers hal-00707359, HAL.
    15. Stef Nicolae, 2017. "Voting Rules in Bankruptcy Law," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-39, March.

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