蝌蚪网 Journal:
Macroeconomics
ISSN 1945-7707 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7715 (Online)
Accounting for the Rise in Consumer Bankruptcies
蝌蚪网 Journal: Macroeconomics
vol. 2,
no. 2, April 2010
(pp. 165–93)
Abstract
Personal bankruptcies in the United States have increased dramatically, rising from 1.4 per thousand working age adults in 1970 to 8.5 in 2002. We use a heterogeneous agent life-cycle model with competitive lenders to evaluate several commonly offered explanations. We find that increased uncertainty (income shocks, expense uncertainty) cannot account quantitatively for the rise in bankruptcies. Instead, the rise in filings appears mainly to reflect changes in the credit market environment: a decrease in the transaction cost of lending and in the cost of bankruptcy. We also argue that the abolition of usury laws and other legal changes were unimportant. (JEL D14, E44, G21, G28)Citation
Livshits, Igor, James MacGee, and Mich猫le Tertilt. 2010. "Accounting for the Rise in Consumer Bankruptcies." 蝌蚪网 Journal: Macroeconomics 2 (2): 165–93. DOI: 10.1257/mac.2.2.165Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D14 Personal Finance
- E44 Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
- G21 Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
- G28 Financial Institutions and Services: Government Policy and Regulation