Does Sweden Have Too Many or Too Few Bankruptcies Compared to EU Countries, Norway and the USA?
) (Department of Economics) Abstract The main purpose with this paper is to compare the frequency of liquidation bankruptcies in Sweden with the frequency of bankruptcies in countries (Germany, U.S., Finland, Norway, U.K. and Denmark) that have a similar economic structure and there by are we able to investigate the legal influence on bankruptcies and costs associated with bankruptcies. When one judges the frequency of bankruptcy in different countries, the main issue is to decide which frequency of bankruptcy is the optimal one (the efficient one). A country is classified as having “too many” bankruptcies when firms that have a positive net present value (in financial distress but not in economic distress) are closed or if many of the bankruptcies are due economically related crimes. A country is classified as having “too few” bankruptcies when firms that are in both in financial and economic distress continues to operate. Relating bankruptcies to number of employees in the respective
