TY  - JOUR
AU  - Djankov,Simeon
AU  - Hart,Oliver
AU  - McLiesh,Caralee
AU  - Shleifer,Andrei
TI  - Debt Enforcement Around the World
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12807
PY  - 2006
Y2  - December 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12807
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12807.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Simeon Djankov
min
E-Mail: sdjankov@minfin.bg

Oliver D. Hart
Department of Economics
Littauer Center 220
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/496-3461
Fax: 617-495-7730
E-Mail: ohart@harvard.edu

Caralee McLiesh
The World Bank
1818 H Street
Washington, DC 20433
E-Mail: cmcliesh@worldbank.org

Andrei Shleifer
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center M-9
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-5046
Fax: 617/496-1708
E-Mail: ashleifer@harvard.edu
AB  - We present insolvency practitioners from 88 countries with an identical case of a hotel about to default on its debt, and ask them to describe in detail how debt enforcement against this hotel will proceed in their countries.  We use the data on time, cost, and the likely disposition of the assets (preservation as a going concern versus piecemeal sale) to construct a measure of the efficiency of debt enforcement in each country.  We identify several characteristics of debt enforcement procedures, such as the structure of appeals and availability of floating charge finance, that influence efficiency.  Our measure of efficiency of debt enforcement is strongly correlated with per capita income and legal origin and predicts debt market development across countries.  Interestingly, it is also highly correlated with measures of the quality of contract enforcement and public regulation obtained in other studies.
ER  -