Why do Spanish firms rarely use the bankruptcy system? The role of the mortgage institution
Series: Working Papers. 1234.
Author: Miguel García-Posada and Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti.
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Abstract
Taking advantage of a rich database of more than 1 million companies in Spain, France and the U.K., we propose and test a hypothesis to explain why Spain has one of the world’s lowest business bankruptcy rates, even during the current economic crisis and after controlling for market exit rates. This hypothesis is based on two premises, the low efficiency of the Spanish bankruptcy system relative to that of an alternative insolvency institution, the mortgage system, and the unattractiveness of the personal bankruptcy law.