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Debtor Fraud in Consumer Debt Renegotiation

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Abstract

We study how forcing financially distressed consumer debtors to repay a larger fraction of debt can lead them to misreport data fraudulently. Using a plausibly exogenous policy change that required debtors to increase repayment to creditors, we document that debtors manipulated data to avoid higher repayment. Consistent with deliberate fraud, data manipulators traveled farther to find more lenient insolvency professionals who, historically, approved more potentially fraudulent filings. Finally, we find that those debtors who misreported income had a lower probability of default on their debt repayment plans, consistent with having access to hidden income.

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  • Slava Mikhed & Sahil Raina & Barry Scholnick & Man Zhang, 2022. "Debtor Fraud in Consumer Debt Renegotiation," Working Papers 22-35, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:94962
    DOI: 10.21799/frbp.wp.2022.35
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    consumer credit; fraud; data misreporting; financial distress; default;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law

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