We examine how creditor rights affect the trade-off between non-debt and debt tax shields. Using four bankruptcy reforms, a panel of private and public firms, and tax return data from Italy, we show that laws empowering creditors reduce tax avoidance and increase debt financing, consistent with...

At all times a debtor exist when there is a creditor. According to the current Rwandan law relating to insolvency, it is provided that the commencement of the insolvency proceedings shall lead to the stay of among others the individual actions or proceedings concerning the debtor’s rights,...

The recent bankruptcies of Johnson & Johnson, the Boy Scouts of America, and Purdue Pharma have thrust the tight-knit world of Chapter 11 bankruptcy practice under the spotlight of public scrutiny. The Purdue case in particular sparked outrage and accusations that the Chapter 11 system serves...

This paper examines the effect of host economy creditor rights and information sharing on the profit performance of foreign banks vis-à-vis domestic banks for a global sample of commercial banks over the 2005-2009 period. To this end, we employ the recent foreign bank ownership dataset of...

A basic question for the design of bankruptcy law concerns whether value should be divided in accordance with absolute priority. Research done in the past decade has suggested that deviations from absolute priority have beneficial ex ante effects. In contrast, this paper shows that ex post...

In an attempt to match US bankruptcy law, many European countries have reformed their insolvency laws towards a regime that fosters corporate restructuring. This paper evaluates the implications of these reforms. Based on a staggered difference-in-differences analysis around eight insolvency...

We examine how creditor rights affect the trade-off between non-debt and debt tax shields. Using four bankruptcy reforms, a panel of private and public firms, and tax return data from Italy, we show that laws empowering creditors reduce tax avoidance and increase debt financing, consistent with...

Using difference-in-difference approach, we find that strengthening creditor rights, after the staggered enactment of anti-recharacterization laws that enhanced the ability of creditors to repossess collateral during bankruptcy, leads to higher CSR and improves CSR strengths and CSR areas that...

Stronger creditor rights reduce credit costs and thus may allow firms to increase leverage and investments, but also increase distress costs and thus may prompt firms to lower leverage and undertake risk-reducing but unprofitable investments. Using a German bankruptcy law reform, on average, we...

We exploit a quasi-natural experiment (the adoption of state anti-recharacterization (AR) laws) to study the effect of strengthened creditor rights on corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A). We find that, following the passage of AR laws, firms significantly reduce M&A activities. This effect...

Theories linking the reuse of collateral to financial instability have been influential in macroeconomics but empirical evidence on them is limited. I utilize a change to bankruptcy treatment of repo collateral to provide causal evidence that strengthened creditor rights increase credit supply...

This paper examines the impact of cross-country variation in shareholders' and debt holders' rights on post-IPO performance and survival of newly listed stocks across the globe. Using a sample of 10,490 initial public offerings (IPOs) in 40 countries between 2000 and 2013, we find that post-IPO...

We examine whether and how creditor monitoring affects corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities through the observable event of debt covenant violations. Covenant violations shift the control rights to creditors, allowing creditors to strengthen monitoring on firm policies. Employing a...

This paper provides a comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis of "creditor rights" and "information sharing" throughout over 1.8 million public and private firms in Europe. We show that many of the outcomes associated with greater levels of creditor rights can be obtained with higher...

This paper finds that stricter laws regulating third-party debt collection reduce the number of third-party debt collectors, lower the recovery rates on delinquent credit card loans, and lead to a modest decrease in the openings of new revolving lines of credit. Further, stricter third-party...

We examine whether the effect of increased creditor rights on corporate borrowing depends on firm's access to internal capital. By exploiting a creditor protection reform in India, empirical outcomes strongly indicate that strengthening of creditor rights leads to increased corporate borrowing...

I examine whether higher creditor rights prevent strategic default. Borrowers who cross either of two thresholds are exempt from a creditor rights law in India. Using a loan day-level dataset, I find that loan performance is better when the law applies and that outperformance increases after a...

This paper examines the effects of improvement in creditors' rights protection on firms' financing choices and securities issuance. To address these issues, I exploit exogenous variation in creditors' rights protection induced by the staggered adoption of anti-recharacterization laws by some...

In 2018 there were almost three hundred thousand petitions filed under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. But of this number fifty-five percent of these cases were dismissed. When the Chapter 13 trustee is holding funds yet to be disbursed at dismissal, a split in authority exists. Should the...

This study examines the effects of the firm's ownership concentration and its institutional environment on corporate debt maturity choices. As ownership concentration and debt maturity are alternative governance mechanisms, we theorize and investigate whether their association is influenced by...

We examine entrepreneurial activity following the staggered adoption of modern-day fraudulent transfer laws in the United States. These laws strengthen unsecured creditors' rights and are particularly important for entrepreneurs whose personal assets commingle with the firm's. Using...

We study how creditor rights and culture interact with one another and influence corporate dividend payout policy. We identify two distinct substitution effects. First, creditors substitute poor legal standing with lower dividends, but only in countries defined as either individualist or with...

Exploiting the staggered adoption of anti-recharacterization laws across various U.S. states as quasi-exogenous shocks to secured lenders' ability to repossess assets in bankruptcy, we find that the strengthening of creditor rights is associated with a significant decrease in the cost of equity...

In this Chapter, we briefly survey the common law's adventures with creditor protection over the course of American history with a special focus on Delaware, the most important jurisdiction for corporate law. We examine the evolution of the equitable doctrines that judges have used to answer a...

We study how banks adjust their portfolios in response to a deterioration in creditor rights. We construct a comprehensive creditor rights index based on a series of quasi-natural experiments in Italy and exploit a unique proprietary credit-level database of one of the largest Italian banks. Our...

In 2016, following the collapse of Dick Smith Electronics there was a call for directors to be held personally liable to account in retailer insolvency with regard to certain behaviour, particularly in relation to pre-payment consumer creditors such as gift card holders. Although this call...

In 1973, experts Homer Kripke and John Slain published a seminal study titled “The Interface Between Securities Regulation and Bankruptcy.” That lengthy analysis, contributed by, respectively, a former Securities and Exchange Commission official and a professor of law, examined the status...

We examine the impact of creditor control rights on corporate acquisitions. Nearly 75% of loan agreements include restrictions that limit borrower acquisition decisions throughout the life of the contract. Following a financial covenant violation, creditors use their bargaining power to tighten...

An extensive body of international business research examines how cross-country variations in legal institutions influence corporate finance practices. Building on this literature, as well as the literature on capital structure and product market interactions, we investigate the effect of an...

Using creditor litigation data from China, we investigate whether creditors can participate in corporate governance when agency conflict between shareholders and creditors is severe. By comparing firms that have experienced creditor lawsuits (litigation firms) with those that have not...

This paper documents that resource reallocation across firms is an important mechanism through which creditor rights affect real outcomes. I exploit the staggered adoption of an international convention that provides globally consistent strong creditor protection for aircraft finance. After this...

Using the difference-in-difference approach, we find that the staggered enactment of anti-recharacterization laws, which strengthened creditor rights by enhancing the ability of creditors to repossess collateral during bankruptcy, leads to higher cost of equity capital of the treated firms. We...

In 2002, a legal reform introduced in India allowed secured creditors to seize and liquidate the defaulter's assets. We study firms' choice between capital and labor in response to these strengthened creditor rights by exploiting variation in their pre-policy proportion of collateralizable...

We develop hypotheses regarding the association between two types of creditor rights and bank loan losses. Contrary to prior research conclusions, bank lending risk is negatively associated with both restrictions on reorganization and the secured creditor being paid first. Using accounting...