Transparency and Liquidity: A Controlled Experiment on Corporate Bonds.

Abstract This paper reports the results of an experiment designed to assess the impact of last-sale trade reporting on the liquidity of BBB corporate bonds. Overall, adding transparency has either a neutral or positive effect on liquidity. Increased transparency is not associated with greater trading volume. Except for very large trades, spreads on newly-transparent bonds decline relative to bonds that experience no transparency change. However, we find no effect on spreads for very infrequently traded bonds. The observed decrease in transactions costs is consistent with investors' ability to negotiate better terms of trade once they have access to broader bond pricing data

The Fate of Firms: Explaining Mergers and Bankruptcies

Using a uniquely complete data set of more than 50,000 observations of approximately 16,000 corporations, we test theories that seek to explain which firms become merger targets and which firms go bankrupt. We find that merger activity is much greater during prosperous periods than during recessions. In bad economic times, firms in industries with high bankruptcy rates are less likely to file for bankruptcy than they are in better years, supporting the market illiquidity arguments made by Shleifer and Vishny (1992). At the firm level, we find that, among poorly performing firms, the likelihood of merger increases with poorer performance, but among better performing firms, the relation is reversed and chances of merger increase with better performance. Such a changing relation has not been detected in prior merger studies. We also find that low-growth, resource-rich firms are prime acquisition targets and that firms’ debt capacity relates negatively to the likelihood of a merger. Debt-related variables, leverage and secured debt, play an especially prominent role in distinguishing between which firms merge and which firms go bankrupt

Non-default Component of Sovereign Emerging Market Yield Spreads and its Determinants: Evidence from Credit Default Swap Market

This article shows that a sizable component of emerging market sovereign yield spreads is due to factors other than default risk, such as liquidity. The author estimates the non-default component of the yield spreads as the basis between the actual credit default swap (CDS) premium and the hypothetical CDS premium implied by emerging market bond yields. On average, the basis is large and positive for speculative-grade bonds and slightly negative for investment-grade bonds. The large positive basis for speculative-grade bonds supports the existence of speculation in the CDS market when the underlying's credit quality is bad. The author studies the effects of bond liquidity, liquidity in the CDS market, equity market performance, and macroeconomic variables on the non-default component of the emerging market yield spreads. The results show that bond liquidity has a significant and positive effect on the CDS–bond basis of investment-grade bonds. The results suggest that the liquid bonds of investment-grade bonds are more expensive relative to the prices implied their CDS premiums. However, the results are somewhat mixed and even contrary for the speculative-grade bond sample

Can working with the private for-profit sector improve utilization of quality health services by the poor? A systematic review of the literature

BACKGROUND: There has been a growing interest in the role of the private for-profit sector in health service provision in low- and middle-income countries. The private sector represents an important source of care for all socioeconomic groups, including the poorest and substantial concerns have been raised about the quality of care it provides. Interventions have been developed to address these technical failures and simultaneously take advantage of the potential for involving private providers to achieve public health goals. Limited information is available on the extent to which these interventions have successfully expanded access to quality health services for poor and disadvantaged populations. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by presenting the results of a systematic literature review on the effectiveness of working with private for-profit providers to reach the poor. METHODS: The search topic of the systematic literature review was the effectiveness of interventions working with the private for-profit sector to improve utilization of quality health services by the poor. Interventions included social marketing, use of vouchers, pre-packaging of drugs, franchising, training, regulation, accreditation and contracting-out. The search for published literature used a series of electronic databases including PubMed, Popline, HMIC and CabHealth Global Health. The search for grey and unpublished literature used documents available on the World Wide Web. We focused on studies which evaluated the impact of interventions on utilization and/or quality of services and which provided information on the socioeconomic status of the beneficiary populations. RESULTS: A total of 2483 references were retrieved, of which 52 qualified as impact evaluations. Data were available on the average socioeconomic status of recipient communities for 5 interventions, and on the distribution of benefits across socioeconomic groups for 5 interventions. CONCLUSION: Few studies provided evidence on the impact of private sector interventions on quality and/or utilization of care by the poor. It was, however, evident that many interventions have worked successfully in poor communities and positive equity impacts can be inferred from interventions that work with types of providers predominantly used by poor people. Better evidence of the equity impact of interventions working with the private sector is needed for more robust conclusions to be drawn

How does personal bankruptcy law affect start-ups? *

Abstract We exploit state-level changes in the amount of personal wealth individuals can protect under Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy to analyze the causal effect of debtor protection on the financing structure and performance of a representative panel of U.S start-up firms. We show that a higher level of debtor protection reduces the availability of credit, employment, operating efficiency, and survival rate of firms owned by low-wealth entrepreneurs. We find no such negative effects for firms owned by high-wealth entrepreneurs, who still have large amounts of assets unprotected under the new bankruptcy regime. Our evidence actually indicates that these wealthier entrepreneurs expand their businesses by increasing employment. Our results are consistent with theories that predict that debtor-friendly bankruptcy regimes redistribute credit from the less wealthy to the more wealthy individuals. (JEL: G32, G33, K35, M13

Governance in financial distress and bankruptcy

This chapter provides a survey of law, economics, and finance scholarship at the intersection of corporate governance and financial distress. In financial distress, both inside and outside of bankruptcy court, formal and informal control rights are paramount. Thus, we organize our review around the major constituencies that exercise control rights in distressed firms: shareholders, managers and boards; senior and junior creditors; and the law, courts and judges. Broadly, our review suggests that an understanding of the incentives of these constituencies is crucial to explaining outcomes. Our review also documents the paradigm shift in the bankruptcy literature, away from the “safe haven” view of Chapter 11as a slow, manager and shareholder-controlled reorganization process. Chapter 11 case outcomes are increasingly steered by sophisticated activist investors, generating faster resolutions that are more creditor-controlled. We suggest some directions for future research in light of these developments