That’s a perennial question in finance, and I defer to one of the services I use, FactSet “…bankruptcy in and of itself is not costly if the value of the firm is efficiently transferred to the bondholders.”
Of course, optimal capital structure is a ‘moving’ target.
Latest FactSet release,Sept. 26, 2016.
Milken Institute Conference talk on the macro level (moderated by Michael Milken) with Emanuel Friedman, Mark Attanasio, Jonathan Sokoloff and Mitchell Julius (who does aircraft securitizations) at the 2015 Conference.
Who has the cheaper capital (in Europe in particular) ?