Financial Distress, Corporate Restructuring and Firm Survival: An Empirical Analysis of German Panel Data

Research on corporate distress and bankruptcy and the accompanying e?orts of ?rms to restructure their operations and balance sheets have become an increasingly important ?eld in ?nancial economics and business administration. Especially in Germany where the recent period of economic downturn and large-scale bankruptcy ?lings coincided with extensivereformsofthebankruptcylegislationthetopichasenjoyedcontroversialdebates among economists, legal scholars and public policy makers. Yet so far insights from empirical research that can provide valuable guidance in these debateshaveremainedsparseandinconclusive. Onereasonforthelackofevidenceisthat common ?nancial theory on corporate restructuring is not fully compatible with the G- man institutional background and thus often allows only ambiguous predictions. Mo- over, empiricalinvestigationsofGermanrestructuringshavesofarbeenalmostimpossible due to the lack of exhaustive data. This holds in particular for private reorganizations, which present the predominant form of restructuring distressed ?rms in Germany. Many economically highly interesting aspects pertain to this ?nal stage in the corporate li- cycle. Forexample,thequestionwhetherthe?rm¿smanagement,shareholdersorcreditors should trigger a formal bankruptcy proceeding or, alternatively, pursue a going-concern in an out-of-court workout has a myriad of economic implications.