Corporate Failures and the Denomination of Corporate Bonds: Evidence from Emerging Asian Economies Over Two Financial Crises

Abstract

Using a novel financial data-set which covers an extensive time period between 1995 to 2012, we test for the impact of currency denomination of bonds on Asian firms' survival probabilities. Our data span two financial crises: the 1997-98 Asian crisis and the 2007-09 global financial crisis. We find that during the former crisis firms with foreign currency denominated bonds face a higher probability of failure compared to firms with domestic bonds. On the other extreme, we find no notable differences between the 2007-09 financial crisis and tranquil times for both domestic and foreign issuers.