EN
Insolvency of businesses is a process that appears in every economy having a free market that eliminates ineffective entities. The aim of this article is to present the number of insolvencies in Poland and in Europe within the last few years, taking into account the companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The paper presents a hypothesis that the companies listed on the stock exchange, due to the strict character of the process of introducing them on the market and due to certain disclosure duties, declare insolvency less frequently than non-public companies. In order to verify the hypothesis, the first thing was to focus on the economic and legal aspects of the insolvency, taking into account the Polish legislation, including the changes that took place in insolvency law that came into force in January 2016. It also presents the characteristics of the insolvency in Poland and in Europe, as well as the statistics concerning the insolvency of public companies listed on the Main Market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange and NewConnect. Then, the market of insolvency in public and non-public companies was analysed. It was shown that statistically speaking, publicly listed companies declare bankruptcy more frequently than non-public companies. Basing upon the analysis of the bankruptcy applications filed by public companies, it was proven that it is not worth investing in the shares of such companies, since basing on the historical date, there was no possibility of generating above-average return rates, and in most cases the investor had to face loss or complete loss of the invested capital.