Finance and Labour Reallocation: The consequences of a liquidation reform

Abstract

In 2005, the Brazilian bankruptcy law was changed to improve secured creditor’s protection. I explore the bankruptcy reform together with heterogeneity of the judicial efficiency, at the municipal level, and heterogeneity of the firm’s asset tangibility, at the sectoral level, to study possible effects on labour reallocation. By applying an instrumental variable approach, I find that firms operating on municipalities with a more efficient judicial system observed a higher increase in their labour force after the reform, and that this effect was stronger on firms operating in sectors which use more tangible assets.