We offer a model and evidence showing that private debtholders play a key role in setting the endogenous asset value threshold below which corporations declare bankruptcy. As predicted by the model, we find that the recovery rate at emergence from bankruptcy on all of the firm’s debt taken together is increasing in the pre-bankruptcy share of private debt in all debt. We further find evidence consistent with a two-threshold model in which private debtholders force default in some cases and shareholders default strategically in others.

中文翻译：

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作为死神的银行：债务构成和破产门槛

我们提供了一个模型和证据，表明私人债务持有人在设定低于公司宣布破产的内生资产价值阈值方面发挥着关键作用。正如模型所预测的那样，我们发现，破产前私人债务在所有债务中所占的份额，公司所有债务的破产恢复率正在增加。我们进一步发现证据与双阈值模型一致，其中私人债务持有人在某些情况下强制违约，而在其他情况下股东战略性违约。