This paper aims at testing empirically the three major theoretical reasons why banks resort to collateral: reduction of loan loss in the event of default, adverse selection, and moral hazard. This investigation is performed by testing whether the reasons vary according to the type of collateral....

The aim of this paper is to provide new evidence on the value-creation process taking place in bankruptcy procedures that belong to different legal systems (French civil law, German civil law, and common law): to do so, we assess to which extent the debtor’s value can be preserved under...

Nous étudions dans cet article deux questions : les jeunes entreprises présentent-elles des caractéristiques distinctes selon l'origine de la création et ces caractéristiques induisent-elles des performances économiques et financières différentes ? L'enrichissement du fichier SINE-94 par...

We study conditions under which legal sanctions may lead to an efficient selection of heterogeneous investment projects. The bankruptcy code is a "primitive creditor system" and financial distress leads to an arbitration between private agreement and costly formal bankruptcy. We consider a...

The main aim of this paper is to find the legal characteristics that impact on the recovery rates. Previous studies (LLSV, Doing Business Report, World Bank) have usefully used a set of legal indexes to rank the bankruptcy law prevalent within the country. But they fail to identify the...

This empirical paper investigates the determinants of the arbitration taking place after a corporate default. Two ways of resolving financial distress are conceivable: either the creditors privately renegotiate with the debtor, or a formal bankruptcy procedure is triggered off. This arbitration...

We investigate whether collateral helps to solve adverse selection problems. Theory predicts a negative relationship between presence of collateral and risk premium, as collateral constitutes a signalling instrument for the borrower to be charged with a lower risk premium. However, bankers’...

There has been a considerable expansion of the volume of syndicated loans in emerging markets in the recent years. We provide the first analysis of the determinants of the decision of banks to syndicate a loan on a sample of loan facilities from 50 emerging countries. We show the significant...

We investigate the impact of bank competition on the use of collateral in loan contracts. We develop a theoretical model incorporating information asymmetries in a spatial competition framework where banks choose between screening the borrower and asking for collateral. We show that the presence...