Fracaso Empresarial Y Efectos Contagio

The critical problem of decline in economic activity and unemployment in Spain has its reflection in the vicious circle generated by bankruptcy, proxied in this paper by the legal figure of the "concurso de acreedores". This work studies the phenomenon from a geographical point of view to analyze the possible contagion effect between provinces. The results show that bankruptcy does not spread affecting other companies in the construction sector but this effect is effectively verified in the industrial sector, which is the one that contributes to generate a contagion effect in the economy viewed as a whole. This contagion is verified only in the years before the crisis, whereas in the recession period it seems there seem to be stronger and alternative negative macroeconomic factors that affect all businesses than contagion itself, as this last one can be considered a firm-specific effect that impacts each company depending on the neighbor companies the firm has relationship with.