This paper analyzes whether the financial distress of a firm affects the investment decisions of non-distressed competitors. On average, firms in distress impose indirect costs to non-distressed competitors by increasing costs of credit in the industry and hence restricting credit access and...

Using a sample of distressed firms with information about suppliers, we document an average fall in the use of trade credit as firms approach bank-ruptcy compared to a control sample of non-bankrupt firms. However, we uncover a large degree of heterogeneity across suppliers. Suppliers facing...