Corporate Financial Distress: comparative accounting treatments and a predictive model for financial turmoil

Abstract

The thesis has been developed to investigate further the field of corporate financial distress. The first chapter introduces the theoretical framework of corporate financial distress, whose definition has been long subject of debate in academic literature. The second chapter focuses on a comparative analysis of the different accounting treatments of corporate debt restructuring adopted by the US FASB, IFRS and Italian OIC. The third and final chapter presents an empirical analysis constituted by a linear regression model performed over a dataset of non-listed, Italian companies. The aim of the model is to test the relative impact different financial conditions can have over the occurrence of corporate financial distress.