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Financial Distress as a Selection Mechanism: Evidence from the United States

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  • Kahl, Matthias

Abstract

This paper follows the process of financial distress from its onset to its resolution for a sample of 95 firms. Only about one-third of the firms survive as independent companies. A firm's short-run and long-run survival probability is positively affected by its operating performance, but its size, leverage, and debt structure complexity have no effect on its survival chances. The post-distress operating performance of the surviving firms is very close to the industry median. Filing for Chapter 11 reduces a firm's survival chances but prolongs financial distress. Overall, the evidence suggests that the U.S. financial distress environment leads to an important extent to the survival of the fittest. Chapter 11 may buy poorly performing firms some additional time, but it does not seem to allow many of them to ultimately escape the discipline of the market for corporate control.

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  • Kahl, Matthias, 2001. "Financial Distress as a Selection Mechanism: Evidence from the United States," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt0dg192r9, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:anderf:qt0dg192r9
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    Cited by:

    1. Kam, Amy & Citron, David & Muradoglu, Gulnur, 2008. "Distress and restructuring in China: Does ownership matter?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 567-579, December.
    2. Douglas Baird & Arturo Bris & Ning Zhu, 2007. "The Dynamics of Large and Small Chapter 11 Cases: An Empirical Study," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2524, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Sep 2009.
    3. Abel Elizalde, 2006. "Credit Risk Models II: Structural Models," Working Papers wp2006_0606, CEMFI.
    4. Galai, Dan & Raviv, Alon & Wiener, Zvi, 2007. "Liquidation triggers and the valuation of equity and debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 3604-3620, December.
    5. Bart Leyman, 2012. "The uneasy case for rehabilitating small firms under the 1997-reorganization law in Belgium: evidence from reorganization plans," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 533-560, December.
    6. Amy Kam & David Citron & Gulnur Muradoglu, 2010. "Financial distress resolution in China – two case studies," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 2(2), pages 46-79, June.
    7. Douglas Baird & Arturo Bris & Ning Zhu, 2007. "The Dynamics of Large and Small Chapter 11 Cases: An Empirical Study," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2524, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Sep 2009.

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