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Household Consumption and Personal Bankruptcy

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  • Ning Zhu

Abstract

This paper utilizes the population of personal bankruptcy filers in the state of Delaware during 2003 and finds that household expenditures on durable consumption goods, such as houses and automobiles, contribute significantly to personal bankruptcy filings. Medical conditions also lead to personal bankruptcy filings, but other adverse events, such as divorce and unemployment, have marginal effects. My findings suggest that consumption patterns make households financially overstretched and more susceptible to adverse events, and these results reconcile the strategic filing and adverse event explanations for the increase in bankruptcy filings.

Suggested Citation

  • Ning Zhu, 2011. "Household Consumption and Personal Bankruptcy," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(1), pages 1-37.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:doi:10.1086/649033
    DOI: 10.1086/649033
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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.
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    7. Wenli Li & Michelle J. White & Ning Zhu, 2011. "Did Bankruptcy Reform Cause Mortgage Defaults to Rise?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 123-147, November.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Mien, Toh Siaw & Said, Rusmawati, 2018. "A Cross-sectional Household Analysis of Household Consumption Patterns: An Indirect Approach to Identify the Possible Factors of Personal Bankruptcy," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 52(3), pages 231-246.
    4. Lance Palmer & Vibha Bhargava, 2018. "Forms of Wealth Associated with Attaining Peer Group Net Worth Following Bankruptcy," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 99(1), pages 97-117, March.
    5. 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.
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    7. Atte Oksanen & Mikko Aaltonen & Kati Rantala, 2015. "Social Determinants of Debt Problems in a Nordic Welfare State: a Finnish Register-Based Study," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 229-246, September.
    8. Gladstone, Joe J. & Jachimowicz, Jon M. & Greenberg, Adam Eric & Galinsky, Adam D., 2021. "Financial shame spirals: How shame intensifies financial hardship," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 42-56.
    9. Piotr Bialowolski & Dorota Weziak‐Bialowolska, 2021. "Good credit, bad credit: The differential role of the sources of debt in life satisfaction," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 967-994, September.
    10. Argys, Laura M. & Friedson, Andrew I. & Pitts, M. Melinda & Tello-Trillo, D. Sebastian, 2020. "Losing public health insurance: TennCare reform and personal financial distress," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    11. Hongchang Wang & Eric M. Overby, 2022. "How Does Online Lending Influence Bankruptcy Filings?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3309-3329, May.
    12. Lee, Ho-Seok & Lim, Byung Hwa, 2023. "Personal bankruptcy and post-bankruptcy liquidity constraint," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    13. Timothy Crack & Helen Roberts, 2015. "Credit card balances and repayment under competing minimum payment regimes," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 785-801, November.
    14. Donald D. Hackney & Daniel Friesner & Matthew Q. McPherson, 2015. "Do Debtors Have an Obvious Financial Rationale for Filing a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Petition?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(3), pages 1572-1588.
    15. Arbel, Yonathan A., 2016. "Shielding of assets and lending contracts," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 26-35.
    16. Laura Argys & Andrew Friedson & M. Melinda Pitts & D. Sebastian Tello-Trillo, 2017. "Losing Public Health Insurance: TennCare Disenrollment and Personal Financial Distress," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2017-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

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