IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/rfinst/v32y2019i4p1309-1373..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Private Equity and Financial Fragility during the Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Shai Bernstein
  • Josh Lerner
  • Filippo Mezzanotti

Abstract

Does private equity (PE) contribute to financial fragility during economic crises? The proliferation of poorly structured transactions during booms may increase the vulnerability of the economy to downturns. During the 2008 crisis, PE-backed companies decreased investments less than did their peers and experienced greater equity and debt inflows, higher asset growth, and increased market share. These effects are especially strong among financially constrained companies and those whose PE investors had more resources at the crisis onset. In a survey, PE firms report being active investors during the crisis and spending more time working with their portfolio companies.Received July 19, 2017; editorial decision March 7, 2018 by Editor Wei Jiang.

Suggested Citation

  • Shai Bernstein & Josh Lerner & Filippo Mezzanotti, 2019. "Private Equity and Financial Fragility during the Crisis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(4), pages 1309-1373.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:32:y:2019:i:4:p:1309-1373.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhy078
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ulf Axelson & Tim Jenkinson & Per Strömberg & Michael S. Weisbach, 2013. "Borrow Cheap, Buy High? The Determinants of Leverage and Pricing in Buyouts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(6), pages 2223-2267, December.
    2. Richard Harris & Donald S. Siegel & Mike Wright, 2005. "Assessing the Impact of Management Buyouts on Economic Efficiency: Plant-Level Evidence from the United Kingdom," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 148-153, February.
    3. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1998. "Financial Dependence and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 559-586, June.
    4. Riley, Rebecca & Rosazza-Bondibene, Chiara & Young, Garry, 2014. "The Financial Crisis, Bank Lending and UK Productivity: Sectoral and Firm-Level Evidence," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 228, pages 17-34, May.
    5. Lichtenberg, Frank R. & Siegel, Donald, 1990. "The effects of leveraged buyouts on productivity and related aspects of firm behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 165-194, September.
    6. Takeo Hoshi & Anil Kashyap & David Scharfstein, 1991. "Corporate Structure, Liquidity, and Investment: Evidence from Japanese Industrial Groups," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(1), pages 33-60.
    7. Ben Bernanke & Mark Gertler, 1990. "Financial Fragility and Economic Performance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(1), pages 87-114.
    8. Todd A. Gormley & David A. Matsa, 2014. "Common Errors: How to (and Not to) Control for Unobserved Heterogeneity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(2), pages 617-661.
    9. Hoshi, Takeo & Kashyap, Anil & Scharfstein, David, 1990. "The role of banks in reducing the costs of financial distress in Japan," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 67-88, September.
    10. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2009. "Varieties of Crises and Their Dates," Introductory Chapters, in: This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Princeton University Press.
    11. Boucly, Quentin & Sraer, David & Thesmar, David, 2011. "Growth LBOs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 432-453.
    12. Omer Brav, 2009. "Access to Capital, Capital Structure, and the Funding of the Firm," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 263-308, February.
    13. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich, 2014. "The Employment Effects of Credit Market Disruptions: Firm-level Evidence from the 2008-9 Financial Crisis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 1-59.
    14. Rüdiger Fahlenbrach & Robert Prilmeier & René M. Stulz, 2012. "This Time Is the Same: Using Bank Performance in 1998 to Explain Bank Performance during the Recent Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(6), pages 2139-2185, December.
    15. Kaplan, Steven, 1989. "The effects of management buyouts on operating performance and value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 217-254.
    16. Bernanke, Ben S, 1983. "Nonmonetary Effects of the Financial Crisis in Propagation of the Great Depression," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(3), pages 257-276, June.
    17. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    18. Ben S. Bernanke & John Y. Campbell, 1988. "Is There a Corporate Debt Crisis?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 83-140.
    19. Roni Michaely & Michael R. Roberts, 2012. "Corporate Dividend Policies: Lessons from Private Firms," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(3), pages 711-746.
    20. Cumming, Douglas & Siegel, Donald S. & Wright, Mike, 2007. "Private equity, leveraged buyouts and governance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 439-460, September.
    21. Bottero, Margherita & Lenzu, Simone & Mezzanotti, Filippo, 2020. "Sovereign debt exposure and the bank lending channel: Impact on credit supply and the real economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    22. Duchin, Ran & Ozbas, Oguzhan & Sensoy, Berk A., 2010. "Costly external finance, corporate investment, and the subprime mortgage credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 418-435, September.
    23. Steven N. Kaplan & Per Stromberg, 2009. "Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 121-146, Winter.
    24. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger & Kyle Handley & Ron Jarmin & Josh Lerner & Javier Miranda, 2014. "Private Equity, Jobs, and Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(12), pages 3956-3990, December.
    25. Kahle, Kathleen M. & Stulz, René M., 2013. "Access to capital, investment, and the financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(2), pages 280-299.
    26. Ivashina, Victoria & Scharfstein, David, 2010. "Bank lending during the financial crisis of 2008," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 319-338, September.
    27. Shai Bernstein & Albert Sheen, 2016. "The Operational Consequences of Private Equity Buyouts: Evidence from the Restaurant Industry," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(9), pages 2387-2418.
    28. John, Kose & Lang, Larry H P & Netter, Jeffry, 1992. "The Voluntary Restructuring of Large Firms in Response to Performance Decline," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 891-917, July.
    29. Victoria Ivashina & Anna Kovner, 2011. "The Private Equity Advantage: Leveraged Buyout Firms and Relationship Banking," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(7), pages 2462-2498.
    30. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shai Bernstein & Josh Lerner & Filippo Mezzanotti, 2020. "Private Equity and Portfolio Companies: Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 32(3), pages 21-42, September.
    2. Duygan-Bump, Burcu & Levkov, Alexey & Montoriol-Garriga, Judit, 2015. "Financing constraints and unemployment: Evidence from the Great Recession," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 89-105.
    3. Martin Olsson & Joacim Tåg, 2017. "Private Equity, Layoffs, and Job Polarization," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 697-754.
    4. Bottero, Margherita & Lenzu, Simone & Mezzanotti, Filippo, 2020. "Sovereign debt exposure and the bank lending channel: Impact on credit supply and the real economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    5. Tykvová, Tereza & Borell, Mariela, 2012. "Do private equity owners increase risk of financial distress and bankruptcy?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 138-150.
    6. Sean Shenghsiu Huang & John R. Bowblis, 2019. "Private equity ownership and nursing home quality: an instrumental variables approach," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 273-299, December.
    7. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2022. "Financial Intermediation and the Economy," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2022-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    8. Erich Battistin & Paolo Bortoluzzi & Fabio Buttignon & Marco Vedovato, 2017. "Minority and majority private equity investments: firm performance and governance," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 21(3), pages 659-684, September.
    9. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Kyle Handley & Ben Lipsius & Josh Lerner & Javier Miranda, 2021. "The economic effects of private equity buyouts," Jena Economics Research Papers 2021-013, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    10. Tåg, Joacim, 2010. "The Real Effects of Private Equity Buyouts," Working Paper Series 851, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    11. González, Francisco, 2016. "Creditor rights, bank competition, and corporate investment during the global financial crisis," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 249-270.
    12. Dyaran Bansraj & Han Smit & Vadym Volosovych, 2020. "Can Private Equity Funds Act as Strategic Buyers? Evidence from Buy-and-Build Strategies," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 20-041/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2017. "Leveraged Buyouts : A Survey of the Literature," Discussion Paper 2017-015, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    14. Paul Lavery & Jose-Maria Serena & Marina-Eliza Spaliara & Serafeim Tsoukas, 2021. "Private equity buyouts, credit constraints, and firm exports," Working Papers 2021_06, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    15. Banerjee, Ryan N. & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Sette, Enrico, 2021. "The real effects of relationship lending✰," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    16. Michael Kleemann & Manuel Wiegand, 2014. "Are Real Effects of Credit Supply Overestimated? Bias from Firms' Current Situation and Future Expectations," ifo Working Paper Series 192, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    17. Giovannetti, Andrea & Pipic, Denis, 2023. "Shaking hands with common foes: Clique premium and information diffusion in private equity networks," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Paravisini, Daniel & Rappoport, Veronica & Schnabl, Philipp, 2023. "Specialization in bank lending: evidence from exporting firms," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119458, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Masami Imai & Michiru Sawada, 2022. "Does a Financial Crisis Impair Corporate Innovation?," Wesleyan Economics Working Papers 2022-002, Wesleyan University, Department of Economics.
    20. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Kyle Handley & Ben Lipsius & Josh Lerner & Javier Miranda, 2019. "The (Heterogenous) Economic Effects of Private Equity Buyouts," NBER Working Papers 26371, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:32:y:2019:i:4:p:1309-1373.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfsssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.