Financial distress comparison across three global regions

Globalization has precipitated movement of output and employment between regions. We examine factors related to corporate financial distress across three continents. Using a multidimensional definition of financial distress we test three hypotheses to explain financial distress using historical financial data. A null hypothesis of a single global model was rejected in favor of a fully relaxed model which created individual financial distress models for each region. This result suggests that despite other indications of worldwide convergence, international differences in accounting rules, lending practices, managements skill levels, and legal requirements among others has kept corporate decline from becoming commoditized.