Mike Burkart, London School of Economics: Bankruptcy Law and the Market for Corporate Influence: Extending the Creditors' Bargain to Distress Investors
Seminars - Brown Bag Series
Speakers
MIKE BURKART, London School of Economics and Political Science
![burkart](/sites/default/files/styles/detail_full_xxl/public/files/media/images/burkart_banner20240220172315.jpg?itok=1YREszhr)
Abstract
The canonical theory of bankruptcy law is that it solves a market failure by imposing a collective choice process that supplants the market. We propose that a bankruptcy law instead catalyzes the market if the collective choice process offers scope for rent seeking. Based on a model in which coordination failures are the key friction, as in the canonical theory, we argue that such a law induces activist investing which improves
the efficiency of distressed restructuring. We interpret the evolution of Chapter 11 and its surrounding market environment through this lens.