IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cam/camdae/0420.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Business Failure in UK and US Quoted Firms: Impact of Macroeconomic Instability and the Role of Legal Institutions

Author

Listed:
  • Bhattacharjee, A.
  • Higson, C.
  • Holly, S.
  • Kattuman, P.

Abstract

Firms exit through the mutually precluding events of bankruptcy and acquisition. We use a competing risks hazard regression model to identify the characteristics leading to each of these two outcomes using over thirty years of data on US and UK quoted firms. We find evidence about the way in which macroeconomic factors affect firm survival in these two economies, in addition to firm and industry-specific factors. Further, there are significant differences in the way in which firms in the US and the UK react to changes in the macroeconomic environment and, particularly to macroeconomic instability. We argue that these differences in response may be attributable to differences in bankruptcy codes in the US and the UK.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhattacharjee, A. & Higson, C. & Holly, S. & Kattuman, P., 2004. "Business Failure in UK and US Quoted Firms: Impact of Macroeconomic Instability and the Role of Legal Institutions," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0420, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:0420
    Note: MA
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/research-files/repec/cam/pdf/cwpe0420.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mata, Jose & Portugal, Pedro & Guimaraes, Paulo, 1995. "The survival of new plants: Start-up conditions and post-entry evolution," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 459-481, December.
    2. Levine, Paul & Aaronovitch, Sam, 1981. "The Financial Characteristics of Firms and Theories of Merger Activity," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 149-172, December.
    3. Dunne, T. & Roberts, M.J., 1989. "Variation In Producer Turnover Across U.S. Manufacturing Industries," Papers 12-89-2, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
    4. Dixit, Avinash K, 1989. "Entry and Exit Decisions under Uncertainty," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(3), pages 620-638, June.
    5. Richard Ericson & Ariel Pakes, 1992. "An Alternative Theory of Firm and Industry Dynamics," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1041, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    6. Thomas F. Cooley & Vincenzo Quadrini, 2001. "Financial Markets and Firm Dynamics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1286-1310, December.
    7. Winter, Joachim, 1998. "Does firms' financial status affect plant-level investment and exit decisions?," Papers 98-48, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    8. Pakes, Ariel & Ericson, Richard, 1998. "Empirical Implications of Alternative Models of Firm Dynamics," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 1-45, March.
    9. Claudio Michelacci & Vincenzo Quadrini, 2009. "Financial Markets and Wages," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(2), pages 795-827.
    10. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    11. Baldwin,John R. & Gorecki,Paul With contributions by-Name:Caves,Richard E. With contributions by-Name:Dunne,Tim With contributions by-Name:Haltiwanger,John, 1998. "The Dynamics of Industrial Competition," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521633574.
      • Baldwin,John R. & Gorecki,Paul With contributions by-Name:Caves,Richard E. With contributions by-Name:Dunne,Tim With contributions by-Name:Haltiwanger,John, 1995. "The Dynamics of Industrial Competition," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521465618.
    12. Stuart C. Gilson, 1991. "Managing Default: Some Evidence On How Firms Choose Between Workouts And Chapter 11," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 4(2), pages 62-70, June.
    13. 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.
    14. Cabral Luis M. B., 1993. "Experience Advantages and Entry Dynamics," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 403-416, April.
    15. David C. Wheelock & Paul W. Wilson, 2000. "Why do Banks Disappear? The Determinants of U.S. Bank Failures and Acquisitions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 127-138, February.
    16. Ronan G. Powell, 1997. "Modelling Takeover Likelihood," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(7‐8), pages 1009-1030, September.
    17. Doms, Mark & Dunne, Timothy & Roberts, Mark J., 1995. "The role of technology use in the survival and growth of manufacturing plants," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 523-542, December.
    18. Audretsch, David B & Mahmood, Talat, 1995. "New Firm Survival: New Results Using a Hazard Function," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 97-103, February.
    19. Audretsch, David B, 1991. "New-Firm Survival and the Technological Regime," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(3), pages 441-450, August.
    20. Richard R. Nelson & Sidney G. Winter, 1978. "Forces Generating and Limiting Concentration under Schumpeterian Competition," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 524-548, Autumn.
    21. Begg,Iain & Henry,Brian, 1998. "Applied Economics and Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521624145.
    22. Caballero, Ricardo J & Hammour, Mohamad L, 1994. "The Cleansing Effect of Recessions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1350-1368, December.
    23. Bhattacharjee, Arnab, 2004. "Estimation in hazard regression models under ordered departures from proportionality," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 517-536, October.
    24. John M. Abowd & Bruno Crepon & Francis Kramarz & Alain Trognon, 1995. "A La Recherche des Moments Perdus: Covariance Models for Unbalanced Panels with Endogenous Death," NBER Technical Working Papers 0180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Ronan G. Powell, 1997. "Modelling Takeover Likelihood," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(7‐8), pages 1009-1030, September.
    26. Richard Disney & Jonathan Haskel & Ylva Heden, 2003. "Entry, Exit and Establishment Survival in UK Manufacturing," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 91-112, March.
    27. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982. "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 649-670, May.
    28. Hayashi, Fumio & Inoue, Tohru, 1991. "The Relation between Firm Growth and Q with Multiple Capital Goods: Theory and Evidence from Panel Data on Japanese Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 731-753, May.
    29. Agarwal, Rajshree & Gort, Michael, 1996. "The Evolution of Markets and Entry, Exit and Survival of Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(3), pages 489-498, August.
    30. Holger Gorg & Eric Strobl., 2001. "Multinational Companies, Technology Spillovers and Plant Survival: Evidence for Irish Manufacturing," European Economy Group Working Papers 8, European Economy Group.
    31. Clarke, Roger & Ioannidis, Christos, 1996. "On the relationship between aggregate merger activity and the stock market: some further empirical evidence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 349-356, December.
    32. repec:crs:wpaper:9515 is not listed on IDEAS
    33. McCall, Brian P, 1994. "Testing the Proportional Hazards Assumption in the Presence of Unmeasured Heterogeneity," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(3), pages 321-334, July-Sept.
    34. Boeri, Tito & Bellmann, Lutz, 1995. "Post-entry behaviour and the cycle: Evidence from Germany," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 483-500, December.
    35. Delli Gatti, Domenico & Gallegati, Mauro & Giulioni, Gianfranco & Palestrini, Antonio, 2003. "Financial fragility, patterns of firms' entry and exit and aggregate dynamics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 79-97, May.
    36. Palepu, Krishna G., 1986. "Predicting takeover targets : A methodological and empirical analysis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 3-35, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arnab Bhattacharjee & Jean Bonnet & Nicolas Le Pape & Régis Renault, 2008. "Entrepreneurial motives and performance : Why might better educated entrepreneurs be less successful ?," Post-Print halshs-00337431, HAL.
    2. Buehler Stefan & Kaiser Christian & Jaeger Franz, 2005. "Competition Policy and Exit Rates: Evidence from Switzerland," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-30, November.
    3. repec:diw:diwfin:diwfin01050 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Gongyu Chen & Chris Higson & Sean Holly & Ivan Petrella, 2010. "Equity Markets, Financial Integration and Competitive Convergence," Working Paper / FINESS 1.5, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Alessandra Amendola & Marialuisa Restaino & Luca Sensini, 2013. "Corporate Financial Distress And Bankruptcy: A Comparative Analysis In France, Italy And Spain," Global Economic Observer, "Nicolae Titulescu" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Sciences;Institute for World Economy of the Romanian Academy, vol. 1(2), pages 131-142, November.
    6. Becchetti, Leonardo & Carpentieri, Andrea & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2009. "The determinants of option-adjusted delta credit spreads : a comparative analysis of the United States, the United Kingdom and the euro area," Research Discussion Papers 34/2009, Bank of Finland.
    7. Leonardo Becchetti & Andrea Carpentieri & Iftekhar Hasan, 2012. "Option†Adjusted Delta Credit Spreads: a Cross†Country Analysis," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 18(2), pages 183-217, March.
    8. Harald Strotmann, 2007. "Entrepreneurial Survival," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 87-104, January.
    9. Arnab Bhattacharjee & Chris Higson & Sean Holly, 2014. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment, Sticky Costs and Operating Leverage over the Business Cycle," SEEC Discussion Papers 1402, Spatial Economics and Econometrics Centre, Heriot Watt University.
    10. Khoja, Layla & Chipulu, Maxwell & Jayasekera, Ranadeva, 2019. "Analysis of financial distress cross countries: Using macroeconomic, industrial indicators and accounting data," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    11. repec:ntu:ntugeo:vol1-iss2s-13-131 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Arnab Bhattacharjee & Chris Higson & Sean Holly & Paul Kattuman, 2007. "Macroeconomic Conditions and Business Exit: Determinants of Failures and Acquisitions of UK Firms," CDMA Working Paper Series 200713, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis.
    13. Becchetti, Leonardo & Carpentieri, Andrea & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2009. "The determinants of option-adjusted delta credit spreads: a comparative analysis of the United States, the United Kingdom and the euro area," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 34/2009, Bank of Finland.
    14. Maria Brouwer, 2006. "Reorganization in US and European Bankruptcy law," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 5-20, July.
    15. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2009_034 is not listed 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. Ugur, Mehmet & Trushin, Eshref & Solomon, Edna M. & Guidi, Francesco, 2015. "Inverted-U relationship between innovation and survival: evidence from firm-level UK data," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 14073, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    2. Richard I.D. Harris & Qian Cher Li, "undated". "Export-market dynamics and the probability of firm closure: Evidence for the UK," Working Papers 2008_17, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    3. Mohammad Ali Jamali & Nor Ghani Md Nor, 2012. "Growth of Firms in Manufacturing Sector," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 13(1), pages 51-68, February.
    4. Carlos Carreira & Paulino Teixeira, 2011. "The shadow of death: analysing the pre-exit productivity of Portuguese manufacturing firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 337-351, April.
    5. Arnab Bhattacharjee & Chris Higson & Sean Holly & Paul Kattuman, 2007. "Macroeconomic Conditions and Business Exit: Determinants of Failures and Acquisitions of UK Firms," CDMA Working Paper Series 200713, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis.
    6. Ghosal, Vivek, 2007. "Small is Beautiful but Size Matters: The Asymmetric Impact of Uncertainty and Sunk Costs on Small and Large Businesses," MPRA Paper 5461, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Huynh, Kim P. & Petrunia, Robert J. & Voia, Marcel, 2012. "Duration of new firms: The role of startup financial conditions, industry and aggregate factors," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 354-362.
    8. Audretsch, David B. & Santarelli, Enrico & Vivarelli, Marco, 1999. "Start-up size and industrial dynamics: some evidence from Italian manufacturing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(7), pages 965-983, October.
    9. Rosanna Pittiglio & Filippo Reganati, 2015. "Multinational Enterprises, Technological Intensity and Firm Survival. Evidence from Italian Manufacturing and Services Firms," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 43(1), pages 87-106, March.
    10. Harald Strotmann, 2002. "Determinanten des Überlebens von Neugründungen in der badenwürttembergischen Industrie. Eine empirische Survivalanalyse mit amtlichen Betriebsdaten," IAW Discussion Papers 06, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    11. Yang, Qing Gong & Temple, Paul, 2012. "Reform and competitive selection in China: An analysis of firm exits," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 286-299.
    12. Talat Mahmood, 1997. "Survival of Newly Founded Businesses: A Log-Logistic Model Approach," CIG Working Papers FS IV 97-32, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    13. Elena Cefis & Orietta Marsili, 2005. "A matter of life and death: innovation and firm survival," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 14(6), pages 1167-1192, December.
    14. Cefis, Elena & Marsili, Orietta, 2012. "Going, going, gone. Exit forms and the innovative capabilities of firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 795-807.
    15. Miguel Manjón-Antolín & Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carod, 2008. "Firm survival: methods and evidence," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 1-24, March.
    16. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    17. Enrico Santarelli & Marco Vivarelli, 2007. "Entrepreneurship and the process of firms’ entry, survival and growth," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(3), pages 455-488, June.
    18. Ugur, Mehmet & Trushin, Eshref & Solomon, Edna, 2016. "Inverted-U relationship between R&D intensity and survival: Evidence on scale and complementarity effects in UK data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1474-1492.
    19. D.B. Audretsch & L. Klomp & E. Santarelli & A.R. Thurik, 2004. "Gibrat's Law: Are the Services Different?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 24(3), pages 301-324, May.
    20. Giulio Bottazzi & Marco Grazzi & Angelo Secchi & Federico Tamagni, 2011. "Financial and economic determinants of firm default," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 373-406, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bankruptcy; Acquisitions; Macroeconomic Instability; Competing Risks Cox Proportional Hazards Model; Receivership;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cam:camdae:0420. 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: Jake Dyer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/ .

    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.