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Article
Financial Firm Bankruptcy and Contagion
Review of Finance (2016)
  • Jean Helwege, University of California, Riverside
  • Gaiyan Zhang, University of Missouri–St. Louis
Abstract
The Lehman bankruptcy highlights the potential for interconnectedness to cause negative externalities through counterparty contagion, but the externalities may also arise from information contagion. We examine contagion from troubled financial firms and find that counterparty contagion is greater during recessions and in cases of riskier firms and larger and more complex exposures. However, the counterparty exposures are small, especially among banks that face diversification regulations, and do not typically cause a cascade of failures. Information contagion is stronger for rivals in the same locale or the same line of business and is stronger in cases of distress than in bankruptcies.
Keywords
  • Banks,
  • counterparty contagion,
  • information contagion,
  • bankruptcy
Disciplines
Publication Date
January 7, 2016
DOI
10.2139/ssrn.2136246
Citation Information
Jean Helwege and Gaiyan Zhang. "Financial Firm Bankruptcy and Contagion" Review of Finance Vol. 20 Iss. 4 (2016) p. 1321 - 1362
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/gaiyan-zhang/6/