Erasmus Finance Seminars

Speaker(s)
Karin S. Thorburn (NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Norway)
Date
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Location
Rotterdam

We examine CEO career and human capital changes around Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings for a large sample of publicly traded firms. One-third of the incumbent CEOs and half of all sample CEOs maintain full-time executive employment despite bankruptcy filing. For these CEOs, we estimate the median change in CEO human capital to be zero. CEOs who do not maintain full-time executive employment experience a median estimated loss of human capital equal to five times their pre-departure compensation. While CEO loss of equity investment in the bankrupt firm is large regardless of career changes, greater pre-filing equity holdings are associated with a lower likelihood of voluntary departure. Greater creditor control rights are associated with a higher likelihood of both forced departure and failure to maintain full-time executive employment.