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Tax claims, government priority, absolute priority and the resolution of financial distress

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Listed:
  • Fisher, Timothy C.G.
  • Martel, Jocelyn
  • Gavious, Ilanit

Abstract

We present a model of an insolvent firm that may take advantage of a ‘soft-touch’ government creditor in order to buy time before filing for reorganization, behaviour we refer to as ‘claims substitution.’ Parameters in the model reflect the enforcement of absolute priority and government priority in bankruptcy. We show that deviations from absolute priority reduce the incentive for claims substitution. We also show that strict government priority is economically efficient. We discuss the implications of our findings for bankruptcy law reform, especially with respect to the priority of tax claims in bankruptcy and the enforcement of absolute priority.

Suggested Citation

  • Fisher, Timothy C.G. & Martel, Jocelyn & Gavious, Ilanit, 2016. "Tax claims, government priority, absolute priority and the resolution of financial distress," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 50-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:48:y:2016:i:c:p:50-58
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2016.08.003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lucian Arye Bebchuk, 2002. "Ex Ante Costs of Violating Absolute Priority in Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 445-460, February.
    2. Arturo Bris & Ivo Welch & Ning Zhu, 2006. "The Costs of Bankruptcy: Chapter 7 Liquidation versus Chapter 11 Reorganization," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1253-1303, June.
    3. Povel, Paul, 1999. "Optimal "Soft" or "Tough" Bankruptcy Procedures," Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 659-684, October.
    4. Fisher, Timothy C G & Martel, Jocelyn, 1995. "The Creditors' Financial Reorganization Decision: New Evidence from Canadian Data," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 112-126, April.
    5. Timothy C.G. Fisher & Jocelyn Martel, 2004. "Empirical Estimates of Filtering Failure in Court‐Supervised Reorganization," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(1), pages 143-164, March.
    6. White, Michelle J, 1994. "Corporate Bankruptcy as a Filtering Device: Chapter 11 Reorganizations and Out-of-Court Debt Restructurings," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 268-295, October.
    7. Schwartz, Alan, 1997. "Contracting about Bankruptcy," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 127-146, April.
    8. Timothy C.G. Fisher & Jocelyn Martel, 2015. "Too much of a good thing? The impact of a new bankruptcy law in Canada," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 36(2), pages 37-66.
    9. Acharya, Viral V. & Amihud, Yakov & Litov, Lubomir, 2011. "Creditor rights and corporate risk-taking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 150-166, October.
    10. Bart Leyman, 2012. "The uneasy case for rehabilitating small firms under the 1997-reorganization law in Belgium: evidence from reorganization plans," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 533-560, December.
    11. David Skeel, "undated". "Creditors' Ball: The 'New' New Corporate Governance in Chapter 11," Scholarship at Penn Law upenn_wps-1032, University of Pennsylvania Law School.
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    Cited by:

    1. Robert Dinterman & Ani L. Katchova, 2021. "Survival analysis of farm bankruptcy filings: Evaluating the time to completion of chapter 12 bankruptcy cases," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(2), pages 324-347, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax claims; Government priority; Absolute priority; Financial distress;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law

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