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Consumer Bankruptcy and Financial Health

Author

Listed:
  • Will Dobbie

    (Princeton University and NBER)

  • Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham

    (Federal Reserve Bank of New York)

  • Crystal S. Yang

    (Harvard Law School and NBER)

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection on financial health using a new data set linking bankruptcy filings to credit bureau records. Our empirical strategy uses the leniency of randomly assigned judges as an instrument for Chapter 13 protection. We find that Chapter 13 protection decreases an index measuring adverse financial events such as civil judgments and repossessions by 0.323 standard deviations and increases the probability of being a homeowner by 13.2 percentage points. Chapter 13 protection has little impact on open unsecured debt but decreases the amount of debt in collections by $1,333.

Suggested Citation

  • Will Dobbie & Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Crystal S. Yang, 2017. "Consumer Bankruptcy and Financial Health," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(5), pages 853-869, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:99:y:2017:i:5:p:853-869
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    2. Brown, James R. & Cookson, J. Anthony & Heimer, Rawley Z., 2019. "Growing up without finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(3), pages 591-616.
    3. Kleiner, Kristoph & Stoffman, Noah & Yonker, Scott E., 2021. "Friends with bankruptcy protection benefits," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 578-605.
    4. Henri Fraisse, 2017. "Households Debt Restructuring: The Re-default Effects of a Debt Suspension," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(4), pages 686-717.
    5. Marco Di Maggio & Ankit Kalda & Vincent Yao, 2019. "Second Chance: Life without Student Debt," NBER Working Papers 25810, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Will Dobbie & Jacob Goldin & Crystal S. Yang, 2018. "The Effects of Pretrial Detention on Conviction, Future Crime, and Employment: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Judges," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 201-240, February.
    7. Koudijs, Peter & Salisbury, Laura, 2020. "Limited liability and investment: Evidence from changes in marital property laws in the US South, 1840–1850," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 1-26.
    8. Will Dobbie & Andres Liberman & Daniel Paravisini & Vikram Pathania, 2021. "Measuring Bias in Consumer Lending [Loan Prospecting and the Loss of Soft Information]," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 88(6), pages 2799-2832.
    9. John Eric Humphries & Nicholas Mader & Ahmed Daniel Tannenbaum & Winnie van Dijk, 2019. "Does Eviction Cause Poverty" Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Cook County, IL," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2186, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    10. Will Dobbie & Paul Goldsmith‐Pinkham & Neale Mahoney & Jae Song, 2020. "Bad Credit, No Problem? Credit and Labor Market Consequences of Bad Credit Reports," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(5), pages 2377-2419, October.
    11. Sepulveda Velasquez, Jorge, 2021. "Bibliometric Review of Research in Financial Health," MPRA Paper 111353, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Jason Allen & Kiana Basiri, 2016. "The Impact of Bankruptcy Reform on Insolvency Choice and Consumer Credit," Staff Working Papers 16-26, Bank of Canada.
    13. Aidt, Toke & Asatryan, Zareh & Badalyan, Lusine, 2022. "Political consequences of consumer debt relief," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-049, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Brigham Frandsen & Lars Lefgren & Emily Leslie, 2023. "Judging Judge Fixed Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(1), pages 253-277, January.
    15. Montebruno, Piero & Silva, Olmo & Szumilo, Nikodem, 2021. "Judge Dread: court severity, repossession risk and demand in mortgage and housing markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110474, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Will Dobbie & Jae Song, 2016. "Debt Relief or Debt Restructuring? Evidence from an Experiment with Distressed Credit Card Borrowers," Working Papers 599, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    17. Julia Fonseca & Katherine Strair & Basit Zafar, 2017. "Access to credit and financial health: evaluating the impact of debt collection," Staff Reports 814, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    18. Adrien Auclert & Will S. Dobbie & Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, 2019. "Macroeconomic Effects of Debt Relief: Consumer Bankruptcy Protections in the Great Recession," NBER Working Papers 25685, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Romeo, Charles & Sandler, Ryan, 2021. "The effect of debt collection laws on access to credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    20. Stefania Albanesi & Jaromir B. Nosal, 2015. "Insolvency after the 2005 bankruptcy reform," Staff Reports 725, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    21. Pattison, Nathaniel, 2020. "Consumption smoothing and debtor protections," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    22. Araujo, Aloisio & Ferreira, Rafael & Lagaras, Spyridon & Moraes, Flavio & Ponticelli, Jacopo & Tsoutsoura, Margarita, 2023. "The labor effects of judicial bias in bankruptcy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(2).
    23. Eichmeyer, Sarah & Zhang, Jonathan, 2023. "Primary care providers’ influence on opioid use and its adverse consequences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    24. Fu, Jonathan, 2020. "Ability or opportunity to act: What shapes financial well-being?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    25. Henri Fraisse, 2017. "Households Debt Restructuring: The Re-default Effects of a Debt Suspension," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(4), pages 686-717.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • K35 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Personal Bankruptcy Law

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