The presence of deterministic or stochastic trend in US GDP has been a continuing debate in the literature of macroeconomics. Ben-David and Papell (1995) found evidence in favour of trend stationarity using the secular sample of Maddison (1991). More recently, Murray and Nelson (2000) correctly...

One of the reasons for the existence of social security systems is that they function as an income redistribution mechanism (Diamond, 1977). Nevertheless, there is no obvious consensus about this social security property. We test it to the Brazilian case and try to answer an additional question:...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between corporate governance and corporate events’ performance. Firms that engage in corporate events seem to perform at least as bad as similar firms that did not. Based on agency theory, the authors hypothesize that lower...

This study investigates the relationship between debtor punishment and the development of the credit market. We empirically analyze how the level of debtor punishment relates to the credit market expansion. We find evidence that an increase in debtor punishment tends to produce a positive effect...

In December 2003, the Brazilian Congress passed a law that led to a natural personal lending experiment. The law allows banks to offer loans with repayment through automatic payroll deduction, which, in effect, turns future income into collateral. We estimate the impact of the new law using auto...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of changes in creditors' priority defined by the bankruptcy law on firms' capital structure. Design/methodology/approach – Taking advantage of the Brazilian bankruptcy law reform as an experiment and using publicly traded firms'...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of changes in creditors' priority defined by the bankruptcy law on firms' capital structure. Design/methodology/approach – Taking advantage of the Brazilian bankruptcy law reform as an experiment and using publicly traded firms'...

This paper studies the effect of the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform in Brazil. Using firm-level data we found that the increase in the level of creditors' protection reduced the cost of debt and increased the amount borrowed by the firms.

In early 2005, the Brazilian Congress approved a new bankruptcy law. The new legislation increased creditor protection and improved the efficiency of the bankruptcy system. This paper evaluates the empirical consequences of a bankruptcy reform on a poorly developed credit market. Using data from...