IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v18y2012i4p994-1004.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Brazilian bankruptcy law experience

Author

Listed:
  • Araujo, Aloisio P.
  • Ferreira, Rafael V.X.
  • Funchal, Bruno

Abstract

In early 2005, the Brazilian Congress approved a new bankruptcy law. The new legislation increased creditor protection and improved the efficiency of the bankruptcy system. This paper evaluates the empirical consequences of a bankruptcy reform on a poorly developed credit market. Using data from Brazilian and non-Brazilian firms, we estimated, using two different models, the effect of the bankruptcy reform on contractual and non-contractual debt variables. In general, both models yielded similar results. Concerning contractual debt variables, we found a significant increase in the total amount and the long-term debt and a reduction in the cost of debt. For the non-contractual debt variable, we found no effect in the loans’ ownership structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Araujo, Aloisio P. & Ferreira, Rafael V.X. & Funchal, Bruno, 2012. "The Brazilian bankruptcy law experience," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 994-1004.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:18:y:2012:i:4:p:994-1004
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2012.03.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119912000326
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2012.03.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pagano, Marco & Jappelli, Tullio, 1993. "Information Sharing in Credit Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1693-1718, December.
    2. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1994. "A Theory of Debt Based on the Inalienability of Human Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 109(4), pages 841-879.
    3. Kee‐Hong Bae & Vidhan K. Goyal, 2009. "Creditor Rights, Enforcement, and Bank Loans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 823-860, April.
    4. Simeon Djankov & Oliver Hart & Caralee McLiesh & Andrei Shleifer, 2008. "Debt Enforcement around the World," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(6), pages 1105-1149, December.
    5. Philippe Aghion & Patrick Bolton, 1992. "An Incomplete Contracts Approach to Financial Contracting," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 59(3), pages 473-494.
    6. Richard Blundell & Monica Costa Dias, 2009. "Alternative Approaches to Evaluation in Empirical Microeconomics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(3).
    7. Djankov, Simeon & McLiesh, Caralee & Shleifer, Andrei, 2007. "Private credit in 129 countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 299-329, May.
    8. Shleifer, Andrei & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-De-Silanes, Florencio & Vishny, Robert W., 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Scholarly Articles 30728041, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    9. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1998. "Default and Renegotiation: A Dynamic Model of Debt," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 113(1), pages 1-41.
    10. Giannetti, Mariassunta, 2003. "Do Better Institutions Mitigate Agency Problems? Evidence from Corporate Finance Choices," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 185-212, March.
    11. Gregor Andrade & Steven N. Kaplan, 1998. "How Costly is Financial (Not Economic) Distress? Evidence from Highly Leveraged Transactions that Became Distressed," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(5), pages 1443-1493, October.
    12. Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo & Hackbarth, Dirk, 2011. "Liquidity mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 526-558.
    13. La Porta, Rafael & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1131-1150, July.
    14. Brown, Martin & Jappelli, Tullio & Pagano, Marco, 2009. "Information sharing and credit: Firm-level evidence from transition countries," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 151-172, April.
    15. Tullio Jappelli & Marco Pagano, 2000. "Information Sharing in Credit Markets: The European Experience," CSEF Working Papers 35, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    16. Webb, David C, 1991. "An Economic Evaluation of Insolvency Procedures in the United Kingdom: Does the 1986 Insolvency Act Satisfy the Creditors' Bargain?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 139-157, January.
    17. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    18. Jappelli, Tullio & Pagano, Marco, 2002. "Information sharing, lending and defaults: Cross-country evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(10), pages 2017-2045, October.
    19. Scott, James H, Jr, 1977. "Bankruptcy, Secured Debt, and Optimal Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(1), pages 1-19, March.
    20. Bolton, Patrick & Scharfstein, David S, 1996. "Optimal Debt Structure and the Number of Creditors," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 1-25, February.
    21. Aloisio Araujo & Bruno Funchal, 2005. "Bankruptcy Law in Latin America: Past and Future," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2005), pages 149-216, August.
    22. Paul Asquith & Robert Gertner & David Scharfstein, 1994. "Anatomy of Financial Distress: An Examination of Junk-Bond Issuers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 109(3), pages 625-658.
    23. Gertner, Robert & Scharfstein, David, 1991. "A Theory of Workouts and the Effects of Reorganization Law," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1189-1222, September.
    24. Levine, Ross, 1998. "The Legal Environment, Banks, and Long-Run Economic Growth," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 30(3), pages 596-613, August.
    25. Beck, Thorsten & Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2008. "Financing patterns around the world: Are small firms different?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 467-487, September.
    26. Levine, Ross, 1999. "Law, Finance, and Economic Growth," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 8(1-2), pages 8-35, January.
    27. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-161, April.
    28. Harold Mulherin, J., 2007. "Measuring the costs and benefits of regulation: Conceptual issues in securities markets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(2-3), pages 421-437, June.
    29. Townsend, Robert M., 1979. "Optimal contracts and competitive markets with costly state verification," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 265-293, October.
    30. Jun Qian & Philip E. Strahan, 2007. "How Laws and Institutions Shape Financial Contracts: The Case of Bank Loans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(6), pages 2803-2834, December.
    31. Sergei A. Davydenko & Julian R. Franks, 2008. "Do Bankruptcy Codes Matter? A Study of Defaults in France, Germany, and the U.K," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 565-608, April.
    32. Paola Sapienza, 2002. "The Effects of Banking Mergers on Loan Contracts," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 329-367, February.
    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. Djankov, Simeon & McLiesh, Caralee & Shleifer, Andrei, 2007. "Private credit in 129 countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 299-329, May.
    2. Aloisio Araujo & Bruno Funchal, 2015. "How Much Should Debtors be Punished in Case of Default?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 229-245, April.
    3. Rainer Haselmann & Paul Wachtel, 2010. "Institutions and Bank Behavior: Legal Environment, Legal Perception, and the Composition of Bank Lending," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(5), pages 965-984, August.
    4. Fien van Solinge & Beau Soederhuizen, 2023. "European Insolvency Law and Firm Leverage," CPB Discussion Paper 448, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    5. Simeon Djankov & Oliver Hart & Caralee McLiesh & Andrei Shleifer, 2008. "Debt Enforcement around the World," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(6), pages 1105-1149, December.
    6. Müller, Karsten, 2022. "Busy bankruptcy courts and the cost of credit," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 824-845.
    7. Juliano J. Assunção & Efraim Benmelech & Fernando S. S. Silva, 2014. "Repossession and the Democratization of Credit," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(9), pages 2661-2689.
    8. Franklin Allen & Xian Gu & Oskar Kowalewski, 2017. "Financial structure, economic growth and development," Post-Print hal-01917114, HAL.
    9. Kose John & Mahsa S Kaviani & Lawrence Kryzanowski & Hosein Maleki, 2021. "Do Country-Level Creditor Protections Affect Firm-Level Debt Structure Concentration? [Why not a political Coase theorem? Social conflict, commitment, and politics]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 25(6), pages 1677-1725.
    10. Mathur, Ike & Marcelin, Isaac, 2015. "Institutional failure or market failure?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 266-280.
    11. Benito Arruñada, 2011. "Mandatory accounting disclosure by small private companies," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 377-413, December.
    12. Giambona, Erasmo & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Matta, Rafael, 2022. "Stiffing the creditor: Asset verifiability and bankruptcy," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    13. Gu, Xian & Kowalewski, Oskar, 2016. "Creditor rights and the corporate bond market," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 215-238.
    14. Bernardus Ferdinandus Nazar Van Doornik & Lucio Rodrigues Capelletto, 2015. "Collateral after the Brazilian Creditor Rights Reform," Working Papers Series 404, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    15. Sengupta, Rajeswari & Anjali Sharma, 2015. "Corporate Insolvency Resolution in India: Lessons from a cross-country comparison," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2015-029, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    16. Boyd, John & Hakenes, Hendrik & Heitz, Amanda, 2018. "The Effects of Creditor Rights and Bank Information Sharing on Borrower Behavior: Theory and Evidence," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181565, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Chuck C Y Kwok & Ying Zheng, 2021. "The role of creditor rights on capital structure and product market interactions: International evidence," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(1), pages 121-147, February.
    18. Hakenes, Hendrik & Boyd, John H. & Heitz, Amanda Rae, 2016. "The Effects of Creditor Rights and Bank Information Sharing on Borrower Behavior: Theory and Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 11699, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Christophe J. Godlewski, 2019. "Debt Renegotiation and the Design of Financial Contracts," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 191-215, June.
    20. Christophe Godlewski & Laurent Weill, 2011. "Does Collateral Help Mitigate Adverse Selection? A Cross-Country Analysis," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 40(1), pages 49-78, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financing policy; Bankruptcy; Law;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • K2 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law

    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:eee:corfin:v:18:y:2012:i:4:p:994-1004. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    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.