Firms are now required to disclose environmental activities and obligations. Prior, presumably viable firms failed to include such obligations on financials. Firms in bankruptcy are often successful in discharging their environmentally liabilities often at great cost to the public. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine existing financial tests companies use to assure the Environmental Protection Agency that they can satisfy their environmental obligations. Passing these tests allows firms to continue engaging in potentially hazardous lines of business without actually allocating the necessary funds. I examine the ability of the tests to detect firms that eventually go bankrupt. I compare the performance of the tests to several methods used to predict bankruptcy such as the Altman Z-Score models, Grice and Ingram's definition of distress, bond ratings, and auditor opinion. I also test the sensitivity of the financial tests to varying cost of closure. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Finance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2005. / April 4, 2005. / Financial Assurance, Assurance Mechanism, Altman Z-Score, Bankruptcy, Environmental Protection Agency / Includes bibliographical references. / Pamela P. Peterson-Drake, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Patrick F. Maroney, Outside Committee Member; Gary A. Benesh, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182487 |
| Contributors | Habegger, Wendy D. (authoraut), Peterson-Drake, Pamela P. (professor co-directing dissertation), Maroney, Patrick F. (outside committee member), Benesh, Gary A. (professor co-directing dissertation), Department of Finance (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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