A comparison of the relative costs of financial distress models: artificial neural networks, logit and multivariate discriminant analysis

This study uses two artificial neural networks (ANNs), categorical learning/instar ANNs and probabilistic (PNN) ANNs, suitable for classification and prediction type issues, and compares them to traditional multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA) and logit to examine financial distress one to three years prior to failure. The results indicate that traditional MDA and logit perform best with the lowest overall error rates. However, when the relative error costs are considered, the ANNs perform better than traditional logit or MDA. Also, as the time period moves farther away from the eventual failure date, ANNs perform more accurately and with lower relative error costs than logit or MDA. This supports the conclusion that for auditors and other evaluators interested in early warning techniques, categorical learning network and probabilistic ANNs would be useful. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.