Narrow Results

This paper demonstrates analytically how short sellers can put non-transitory downward pressure on the stock market prices and intrinsic values of companies that need to raise external capital because of insufficient internal liquidity. The model helps explain anomalous empirical findings in the extant literature on negative returns to stocks subjected to heavy shorting activity. The implications of the model also supply normative justification for the sizable cash reserves held by corporations and their reluctance to raise external capital. The equity pricing effects implied by the model are illustrated for a large empirical sample of companies negatively impacted by heavy short sales. Empirical tests are also conducted in this research that provide evidence consistent with the theory.

This paper analyzes the reorganization procedure introduced into the Chinese bankruptcy system in 2007. It shows that managers devote more effort during the reorganization than before the bankruptcy when the emergence value of the bankrupt firm is substantial. In addition, in the pre-bankruptcy period, managers were shown to input less effort under the new law than under the old law. Finally, the paper demonstrates that the market interest rate under the new bankruptcy law is not necessarily lower than that under the old law. These results call attention to the potential costs of the reorganization procedure.

The global financial crisis in 2008 increased the number of business failures in the U.S. as well as in China. The Chinese economy has also been affected by the recent global financial crisis given the fact that the Chinese economy depends heavily on international trade. Our study tries to find the determinants of bankruptcy in Chinese firms. Both logit and survival model analyses provide consistent results on the determinants in predicting distressed firms in China. Our results suggest that firms with liquidity problems and firms experiencing a decline in profits are more likely to file for bankruptcy. In addition, we find that, compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), collectively-owned enterprises, private-owned enterprises, and foreign-owned businesses are more likely to file for bankruptcy. This conclusion is robust after controlling for regional differences. The findings of this study show that the financial variables developed by Altman [Financial ratios, discriminant analysis and the prediction of corporate bankruptcy. Journal of Finance, 23(3), 589–609] and Ohlson [Financial ratios and probabilistic prediction of bankruptcy. Journal of Accounting Research, 18(1), 109–131] perform reasonably well in determining business failures of Chinese firms even though SOEs and shadow financing exist in China.

This study examines whether negative book equity (BE) firms are in financial distress by analyzing their operating performance, financial characteristics, distress risk, and survivability when they first report negative BE. Firms with small magnitude of negative BE (SNBE firms) suffer from persistent negative earnings and financial distress, while firms with large magnitude of negative BE (LNBE firms) experience a temporary non-distress related earnings shock. LNBE firms report consecutive years of negative BE, but have lower distress risk and failure rate than both SNBE and control firms. However, all negative BE stocks have abysmal returns subsequent to their first report of negative BE.