Publications

2018
Working Paper

Trade Creditors' Information Advantage

By: Victoria Ivashina and Benjamin Iverson

Using information on the sales of debt claims for 132 U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, we show that large trade creditors’ decisions to sell receivables of a distressed company in bankruptcy are predictive of lower recovery rates, and that in such cases these... View Details

Keywords: Trade Credit; Distress; Bankruptcy; Credit; Information; Insolvency and Bankruptcy

November 2013
Supplement

Arch Wireless, Inc. (B): Food for Vultures

By: Stuart C. Gilson

In 2002, a hedge fund investor acquires the distressed bank debt of a bankrupt wireless paging company and converts his holding into common stock of the reorganized entity. Determining his likely return from this investment is challenging, given that the entire... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy Reorganization; Distress Investing; Capital Structure; Restructuring; Investment Funds; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Borrowing and Debt; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry

September 2017 (Revised February 2019)
Case

Blackstone's GSO Capital: Crosstex Investment

By: Victoria Ivashina, John D. Dionne and Jeffrey Boyar

This case focuses on the Blackstone credit arm, GSO Capital as it evaluated a proposal for an equity investment into the distressed company, Crosstex Energy L.P., an integrated midstream energy company, that was hit hard by declining natural gas prices during the 2008... View Details

Keywords: Distress Investing; Rescue Financing; Investment; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Condition

Research Summary

Get in Line: Chapter 11 Restructuring in Crowded Bankruptcy Courts

This paper tests whether Chapter 11 restructuring outcomes are affected by time constraints in busy bankruptcy courts. On average, total bankruptcy filings rise by 32% during economic recessions, leaving bankruptcy judges with far less time per case exactly when... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Financial Distress; Insolvency and Bankruptcy

2020
Working Paper

Bankruptcy and the COVID-19 Crisis

By: Jialan Wang, Jeyul Yang, Benjamin Iverson and Raymond Kluender

We examine the impact of the COVID-19 economic crisis on business and consumer bankruptcies in the United States using real-time data on the universe of filings. Historically, bankruptcies have closely tracked the business cycle and contemporaneous unemployment rates.... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Financial Distress; COVID-19; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Crisis; Health Pandemics; United States

SSRN

August 2016
Teaching Note

Songy 2011: Restructuring to Survive (Or, Surviving to Restructure?)

By: Charles F. Wu and Alexander W. Schultz

In 2011, Songy Partners, an Atlanta based real estate developer, was facing three distressed investments within their portfolio each with distinct sets of challenges. Having weathered a myriad of issues during the Global Financial Crisis which included operational... View Details

Keywords: Distressed Debt; Real Estate; Limited Partners; Cap Rates; Partners and Partnerships; Valuation; Investment; Property; Borrowing and Debt; Real Estate Industry; Atlanta

February 2022
Article

Borrowing to Save? The Impact of Automatic Enrollment on Debt

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and William L. Skimmyhorn

Does automatic enrollment into a retirement plan increase financial distress due to increased borrowing outside the plan? We study a natural experiment created when the U.S. Army began automatically enrolling newly hired civilian employees into the Thrift Savings Plan.... View Details

Keywords: Retirement Savings; Automatic Enrollment; Choice Architecture; Nudge; Financial Distress; Retirement; Saving; Borrowing and Debt; Behavior

November 2013 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Restructuring JAL

By: Malcolm Baker, Adi Sunderam, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

Hideo Seto, the recently appointed chairman of the investment committee of the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation, must decide whether to push JAL group, Japan's largest airline, into bankruptcy or to act as a sponsor in an out-of-court restructuring. The... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Costs Of Financial Distress; Cost vs Benefits; Air Transportation; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Air Transportation Industry; Japan; United States

September 2019
Article

Contingent Capital Trigger Effects: Evidence from Liability Management Exercises

By: Boris Vallée

This paper investigates the so called liability management exercises by European banks, which bear comparable effects to triggering contingent capital. I first explore the determinants of these exercises. I then study market reactions to these operations as well as... View Details

Keywords: Contingent Capital; Financial Distress; Regulatory Capital; Financial Institutions; Legal Liability; Management; Banking Industry; Europe

August 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Songy 2011: Restructuring to Survive (or, Surviving to Restructure?)

By: Charles F. Wu

In 2011, Songy Partners, an Atlanta-based real estate developer, was facing three distressed investments within their portfolio each with distinct sets of challenges. Having weathered a myriad of issues during the global financial crisis that included operational... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Distressed Debt; Global Financial Crisis; Foreclosure; Partnership; Partners and Partnerships; Valuation; Global Range; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Property; Financial Crisis; Real Estate Industry; Atlanta

2015
Working Paper

Cashing Out: The Rise of M&A in Bankruptcy

By: Stuart Gilson, Edith Hotchkiss and Matthew Osborn

The use of M&A in bankruptcy has increased dramatically in recent years, leading to concerns that the Chapter 11 process has shifted toward excessive liquidation of viable firms. In this paper, we argue that the rise of M&A has blurred traditional distinctions between... View Details

Keywords: M＆A; Chapter 11; Distress; Bankruptcy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Insolvency and Bankruptcy

July 2022
Article

Mental Health During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review and Recommendations for Moving Forward

By: Lara Aknin, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Elizabeth Dunn, Daisy Fancourt, Elkhonon Goldberg, John Helliwell, Sarah P. Jones, Elie Karam, Richard Layard, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Andrew Rzepa, Shekhar Saxena, Emily Thornton, Tyler VanderWeele, Ashley V. Whillans, Jamil Zaki, Ozge Karadag Caman and Yanis Ben Amour

COVID-19 has infected millions of people and upended the lives of most humans on the planet. Researchers from across the psychological sciences have sought to document and investigate the impact of COVID-19 in myriad ways, causing an explosion of research that is broad... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Mental Health; Psychological Distress; Subjective Well-being; Lonelines; Social Connection; Self-harm; Suicide; Health Pandemics; Well-being

January 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

The Rise and Fall of Lehman Brothers

By: Stuart C. Gilson, Kristin Mugford and Sarah L. Abbott

With nearly $700 billion in assets, Lehman was the largest U.S. bankruptcy in history. In 2007, Lehman achieved record earnings of over $4 billion on revenues of $60 billion. By September 2008 the fourth largest investment bank in the world was bankrupt. How had a... View Details

2024
Working Paper

Consumer Choice and Corporate Bankruptcy

By: Samuel Antill and Megan Hunter

We estimate the indirect costs of corporate bankruptcy associated with lost customers. In incentivized experiments, randomly informing consumers about a firm’s Chapter 11 reorganization lowers their willingness to pay for the firm’s products by 18-35%. Up to 48% of... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Choice; Bankruptcy; Financial Distress; Structural Estimation; Experimental Economics; Hertz; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Consumer Behavior

SSRN

Article

The Ownership and Trading of Debt Claims in Chapter 11 Restructurings

By: Victoria Ivashina, Benjamin Iverson and David C. Smith

What is the ownership structure of bankrupt debt claims? How does the ownership evolve though bankruptcy? And how does debt ownership influence Chapter 11 outcomes? To answer these questions, we construct a data set that identifies the entire capital structure for 136... View Details

Keywords: Ownership Structure; Distressed Debt; Trading In Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Ownership; Borrowing and Debt; United States

November 2006 (Revised August 2012)
Background Note

A Strategic Perspective on Bankruptcy

By: Bill George, Jim Sharpe and Andrew N. McLean

An overview of bankruptcy procedures in U.S. courts, recent filing data and a framework for evaluating a reorganization with creditors or considering opening a court-supervised reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Financial Distress; Turnarounds; Legal Aspects Of Business; Liquidation; Boards Of Directors; Hedge Funds; Strategy; Law; Governing and Advisory Boards; Negotiation; Crisis Management; Policy; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Credit; Financial Crisis; United States

February 2012 (Revised October 2012)
Background Note

A Glossary of Technical Terms Related to Bankruptcy in the U.S.

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Jim Sharpe and Ravi Mehta

Quick reference guide of various terms related to the United States Bankruptcy Code. View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Financial Crisis; Financial Distress; Turnarounds; Legal Aspects Of Business; Crisis Management; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Finance; Law; United States

June 2013
Teaching Note

Bonne Chance

By: Jim Sharpe and Ian Cornell

This is a teaching note related to HBS Case 813049. View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Turnarounds; Bankruptcy; Bankruptcy Reorganization; Cash Flow; Cash; Forecasting; Bank Debt; Distressed Debt; Forecasting and Prediction; Entrepreneurship; Retail Industry; United States