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Financial Distress in the Great Depression

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  • John R. Graham
  • Sonali Hazarika
  • Krishnamoorthy Narasimhan

Abstract

We use firm-level data to study corporate performance during the Great Depression era for all industrial firms on the NYSE. Our goal is to identify the factors that contribute to business insolvency and valuation changes during the period 1928 to 1938. We find that firms with more debt and lower bond ratings in 1928 became financially distressed more frequently during the Depression, consistent with the trade-off theory of leverage and the information production role of credit rating agencies. We also document for the first time that firms responded to tax incentives to use debt during the Depression era, but that the extra debt used in response to this tax-driven "debt bias" did not contribute significantly to the occurrence of distress. Finally, we conduct an out of sample test during the recent 2008-2009 Recession and find that higher leverage and lower bond ratings also increased the occurrence of financial distress during this period.

Suggested Citation

  • John R. Graham & Sonali Hazarika & Krishnamoorthy Narasimhan, 2011. "Financial Distress in the Great Depression," NBER Working Papers 17388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17388
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    2. Marianna Succurro, 2017. "Financial Bankruptcy across European Countries," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(7), pages 132-146, July.
    3. Gupta, Kartick & Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar, 2018. "Does corporate social responsibility engagement benefit distressed firms? The role of moral and exchange capital," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 249-262.
    4. Francesco Cohen & Alessandro Fedele & Paolo M. Panteghini, 2016. "Corporate taxation and financial strategies under asymmetric information," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 33(1), pages 9-34, April.
    5. Emilia Bonaccorsi di Patti & Alessio D’Ignazio & Marco Gallo & Giacinto Micucci, 2015. "The Role of Leverage in Firm Solvency: Evidence From Bank Loans," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 1(2), pages 253-286, July.
    6. Thanh Dan Bui & Nguyen Ngoc Thach, 2023. "How Vietnamese Export Firms Faced Financial Distress during COVID-19? A Bayesian Small Sample Analysis," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-12, January.
    7. Hao, Ying & Huang, Yuxiu & Cui, Xuegang & Liu, Qiang & Zhang, Yuwen, 2021. "CEO experience and corporate financing decisions: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Lucio Masserini & Matilde Bini & Alessandro Zeli, 2021. "A Longitudinal Analysis of Riskiness Indicators After the 2008 and 2011 Economic Crises: The Case of Italian Manufacturing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 499-513, August.

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