Transition and enterprise restructuring: the role of budget constraints and bankruptcy costs

The focus of analysis is on the impact of financial leverage as a measure of bankruptcy costs on enterprise restructuring, based on budget constraints in the economy. Data of Bulgarian manufacturing firms allow comparison of firm behavior under soft and hard budget constraints as distinguished by the inception of a currency board in 1997. Controlling for change in sales, firm size and type of ownership, statistically significant relationship between financial leverage and firm restructuring through labor adjustments is found to exist under hard budget constraints only.