IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v20y2002i4p440-455.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact Of Casino Gambling On Personal Bankruptcy Filing Rates

Author

Listed:
  • John M. Barron
  • Michael E. Staten
  • Stephanie M. Wilshusen

Abstract

Personal bankruptcies soared in the United States between 1994 and 1998. One activity that can precipitate personal financial crises and that has also experienced dramatic growth is commercial gambling, especially casino gambling. This article builds a simple model of bankruptcy choice and empirically tests the model using unique county‐level data on debt, income, household age, population density, and casino gambling as well as state measures of employment and marital stability, health insurance coverage, and garnishment restrictions. The authors find that the proximity of casino gambling appears to be associated with higher bankruptcy rates, but that the local impact is far more pronounced than the influence of casino gambling on the national filing rate. To quantify the magnitude of the impact, the analysis predicts over a 5% decline in 1998 filing rates for counties surrounding a casino, and a 1% decline in the nationwide filing rate if one were to eliminate casino gambling. Consequently, although casino gambling exerts important local effects, nationwide the incidence and growth of casino gambling does not explain much of the rise in bankruptcies during the past decade.

Suggested Citation

  • John M. Barron & Michael E. Staten & Stephanie M. Wilshusen, 2002. "The Impact Of Casino Gambling On Personal Bankruptcy Filing Rates," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 20(4), pages 440-455, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:20:y:2002:i:4:p:440-455
    DOI: 10.1093/cep/20.4.440
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/cep/20.4.440
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1093/cep/20.4.440?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reint Gropp & John Karl Scholz & Michelle J. White, 1997. "Personal Bankruptcy and Credit Supply and Demand," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 217-251.
    2. Domowitz, Ian & Eovaldi, Thomas L, 1993. "The Impact of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 on Consumer Bankruptcy," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 803-835, October.
    3. Walker, Douglas M. & Jackson, John D., 1998. "New Goods and Economic Growth: Evidence from Legalized Gambling," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 28(2), pages 47-70, Fall.
    4. David B. Gross, 2002. "An Empirical Analysis of Personal Bankruptcy and Delinquency," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 319-347, March.
    5. Jon P. Nelson, 1999. "Consumer Bankruptcy And Chapter Choice: State Panel Evidence," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 17(4), pages 552-566, October.
    6. William R. Eadington, 1999. "The Economics of Casino Gambling," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 173-192, Summer.
    7. Buckley, F H & Brinig, Margaret F, 1998. "The Bankruptcy Puzzle," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(1), pages 187-207, January.
    8. Nichols, Mark W. & Grant Stitt, B. & Giacopassi, David, 2000. "Casino gambling and bankruptcy in new United States casino jurisdictions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 247-261, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richard Thalheimer & Mukhtar M. Ali, 2004. "The Relationship of Pari‐mutuel Wagering and Casino Gaming to Personal Bankruptcy," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(3), pages 420-432, July.
    2. Hülya Eraslan & Gizem Koşar & Wenli Li & Pierre‐Daniel Sarte, 2017. "An Anatomy Of U.S. Personal Bankruptcy Under Chapter 13," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 58(3), pages 671-702, August.
    3. Michelle J. White, 2005. "Economic Analysis of Corporate and Personal Bankruptcy Law," NBER Working Papers 11536, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Adkisson, Richard V. & Saucedo, Eduardo, 2012. "Emulation and state-by-state variations in bankruptcy rates," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 400-407.
    5. Garrett, Thomas A. & Nichols, Mark W., 2008. "Do casinos export bankruptcy?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1481-1494, August.
    6. Igor Livshits & James MacGee & Michèle Tertilt, 2010. "Accounting for the Rise in Consumer Bankruptcies," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 165-193, April.
    7. Wenli Li & Pierre-Daniel G. Sarte, 2002. "The macroeconomics of U.S. consumer bankruptcy choice : chapter 7 or chapter 13?," Working Paper 02-01, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    8. Gross, Tal & Notowidigdo, Matthew J., 2011. "Health insurance and the consumer bankruptcy decision: Evidence from expansions of Medicaid," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 767-778, August.
    9. Thomas A. Garrett, 2007. "The rise in personal bankruptcies: the Eighth Federal Reserve District and beyond," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 89(Jan), pages 15-38.
    10. Wenli Li & Ishani Tewari & Michelle J. White, 2019. "Using Bankruptcy to Reduce Foreclosures: Does Strip-Down of Mortgages Affect the Mortgage Market?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 59-87, February.
    11. Kelly D. Edmiston, 2005. "New insights in the determinants of regional variation in personal bankruptcy filing rates," Community Affairs Research Working Paper 2005-05, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    12. Jonathan D. Fisher, 2005. "The Effect Of Unemployment Benefits, Welfare Benefits, And Other Income On Personal Bankruptcy," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(4), pages 483-492, October.
    13. Chintal Desai & Gregory Elliehausen & Jevgenijs Steinbuks, 2013. "Effects of Bankruptcy Exemptions and Foreclosure Laws on Mortgage Default and Foreclosure Rates," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 391-415, October.
    14. Agarwal, Sumit & Liu, Chunlin & Mielnicki, Lawrence, 2003. "Exemption laws and consumer delinquency and bankruptcy behavior: an empirical analysis of credit card data," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 273-289.
    15. Paul Bishop & Peter Gripaios, 2010. "Personal Insolvency in England and Wales: A Spatial Analysis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(8), pages 1687-1702, July.
    16. Li, Wenli & Sarte, Pierre-Daniel, 2006. "U.S. consumer bankruptcy choice: The importance of general equilibrium effects," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 613-631, April.
    17. Agarwal, Sumit & Chomsisengphet, Souphala & Liu, Chunlin, 2011. "Consumer bankruptcy and default: The role of individual social capital," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 632-650, August.
    18. Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy & Andrew T. Young, 2003. "Growth and Convergence across the US: Evidence from County-Level Data," Working Papers 2003-03, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    19. Lars Lefgren & Frank McIntyre, 2009. "Explaining the Puzzle of Cross-State Differences in Bankruptcy Rates," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(2), pages 367-393, May.
    20. Wenli Li & Pierre-Daniel Sarte & Hulya Eraslan, 2007. "A Structural Model of Chapter 13 Personal Bankruptcy," 2007 Meeting Papers 972, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:20:y:2002:i:4:p:440-455. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.