American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
Did Bankruptcy Reform Cause Mortgage Defaults to Rise?
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 3,
no. 4, November 2011
(pp. 123–47)
Abstract
Homeowners in financial distress can use bankruptcy to avoid defaulting on their mortgages, since filing loosens their budget constraints. But the 2005 bankruptcy reform made bankruptcy less favorable to homeowners and therefore caused mortgage defaults to rise. We test this relationship and find that the reform caused prime and subprime mortgage default rates to rise by 23% and 14%, respectively. Default rates rose even more for homeowners who were particularly negatively affected by the reform. We calculate that bankruptcy reform caused mortgage default rates to rise by one percentage point even before the start of the financial crisis. (JEL D14, G01, G21, K35)Citation
Li, Wenli, Michelle J. White, and Ning Zhu. 2011. "Did Bankruptcy Reform Cause Mortgage Defaults to Rise?" American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 3 (4): 123–47. DOI: 10.1257/pol.3.4.123Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D14 Personal Finance
- G01 Financial Crises
- G21 Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
- K35 Personal Bankruptcy Law
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