Using data over a 34-year span on UK quoted firms, this paper seeks to identify the factors that increase the likelihood of exit of firms. Firms may disappear through the mutually precluding events of bankruptcies and acquisitions. We use a competing-risks hazard model to determine...

We bring to light a significant aspect of firm level heterogeneity over the business cycle. Analysing the responsiveness of firm growth (quoted UK companies) to aggregate shocks, we find that the effects of aggregate shocks are more pronounced for firms in the middle range of growth. Rapidly...

We study the impact of the macroeconomic environment on business exit in a world where acquisition and bankruptcy are co-determined. We estimate competing risk hazard regression models using data on UK quoted firms spanning a 38-year period that witnessed several business cycles. We find that...

‘Operating leverage’describes the extent to which a …Firm’s operating costs are fi…xed in the short term. Operating leverage ampli…es the earnings impact of a change in revenues; an effect which is further amplified by fi…nancial leverage and by non-proportionality in...

We expect a firm's competitive advantage to manifest itself in a return on invested capital that is higher than the opportunity cost of capital. Deviations of returns from the cost of capital are a signal for competitive entry or for exit, while the speed of convergence indicates the strength of...