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Thriving in the Midst of Financial Distress? An Analysis of Firms Exposed to Abestos Litigation

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Author Info
Taillard, Jerome Ph. A. (Ohio State U)
Abstract

Asbestos litigation is one of the most important mass tort litigations in the history of the United States. I analyze a comprehensive sample of 270 firms that were exposed to an unprecedented wave of asbestos litigation in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Amchem (1997) and Ortiz (1999). Due to insurance coverage, most firms in the sample have manageable cash outflows and do not suffer materially from the litigation. Because of the long delay between exposure to asbestos and its related illnesses, the remaining firms with substantial cash outflows and liabilities offer a rare natural experiment to study financial distress unrelated to economic distress. When analyzing this sub-sample throughout the distress period, I find little evidence of indirect costs of financial distress. This surprising result can be directly related to the strategic use of Chapter 11 as it provides a safe harbor through the stay in litigation and the "channeling injunction", which allows for a definitive solution for the legal liabilities. There is also evidence of a positive role for the disciplinary effects of financial distress as firms subject to increased bank monitoring and increased legal liabilities actively restructure and refocus on core operations.

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Paper provided by Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number 2008-12.

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Date of creation: Jul 2008
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Handle: RePEc:ecl:ohidic:2008-12

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G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Capital and Ownership Structure

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  1. 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, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Vojislav Maksimovic & Gordon Phillips, 1998. "Asset Efficiency and Reallocation Decisions of Bankrupt Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(5), pages 1495-1532, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. 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(1988-1), pages 141-206. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Dahiya, Sandeep & John, Kose & Puri, Manju & Ramirez, Gabriel, 2003. "Debtor-in-possession financing and bankruptcy resolution: Empirical evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 259-280, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Sudheer Chava & Michael R. Roberts, 2008. "How Does Financing Impact Investment? The Role of Debt Covenants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2085-2121, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Dahiya, Sandeep & Yermack, David, 2003. "Litigation exposure, capital structure and shareholder value: the case of Brooke Group," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 271-294, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. David M. Cutler & Lawrence H. Summers, 1988. "The Costs of Conflict Resolution and Financial Distress: Evidence from the Texaco-Pennzoil Litigation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(2), pages 157-172, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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