Corporate Financial Distress and Bankruptcy

Corporate Financial Distress and Bankruptcy has moved into a public domain due to the recent global financial crisis that witnessed failures of many venerable institutions that were rescued by the government. This led to landmark legislation in the form of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to provide resolution authority similar to private workouts but under government authority. This survey will highlight the resolution mechanisms not only in the private domain but also in the public domain and will use corporate finance paradigms to interpret some of these far-reaching developments in financial distress of systemic nature. Section II provides the institutional features of financial distress and bankruptcy, focusing on the workings of the US bankruptcy system. Section III provides a review of the major theoretical developments in corporate financial distress and bankruptcy. Section IV reviews the available empirical work on financial distress and