The prediction of bankruptcy of small- and medium-sized industrial firms

Using large amounts of data from small- and medium-sized industrial firms, this study examines several aspects of bankruptcy prediction. We have tested a hypothesis on the predictive power of different ratio categories during the successive phases before bankruptcy, and one on the relationship between the age of a firm and the predictability of bankruptcy. It was found that virtually every ratio investigated had some predictive power, and that the univariate and multivariate importance of ratio stability were not very high.