Economic Analysis of Bankruptcy Laws: the Ten Major Functions of Insolvency Procedures

This article proposes an original economic analysis of the bankruptcy systems prevailing in 20 countries (European and non-European ones). We identify ten major functions for insolvency procedures: accessibility, flexibility, insolvency costs, information, protection of the debtor's assets, protection of the claims, coordination, decision power, sanctions, orientation towards liquidation/reorganization. We suggest that the usual antagonisms between debtor-friendly vs. creditor-friendly systems, and/or regarding the origins of the legal systems (civil law vs. common law) are far too rough and superficial to drive the localization strategies of the foreign investors. Each insolvency system has specific strengths and weaknesses, which are straightforward to identify, and that vary from one category of stakeholders to the other.