This study investigates the relationship between debtors? punishment and the credit market development. As the main goal we analyze empirically which is the optimal level of the debtors? punishment, providing the highest credit market development. Aligned with earlier theoretical findings from...

This paper studies bankruptcy law in Latin America, focusing on the Brazilian reform. We start with a review of the international literature on this subject. Next we examine the economic incentives associated with several aspects of bankruptcy laws and insolvency procedures in general, as well...

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 early 2005 a new bankruptcy law was approved by the Brazilian Congress, taking effect a few months later. The new legislation improved creditor protection and the bankruptcy system's efficiency. This paper tries to shed some light on the empirical consequences of a bankruptcy reform on a...

The present paper analyses the influence of the judiciary and bankruptcy law in the credit market and in the economic growth in differents regions of the world. This paper also criticizes the current "Law and Finance" theory, mainly the papers of La Porta et al (1997,1998) and Levine et al...

Following Almeida, Campello and Weisbach (2003), we use the link between financial constraints and firm’s demand for liquidity to test the effect of financial constraints on firm policies in Brazil. The effect of financial constraints can be captured by a firm’s propensity to save cash out...

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...