IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/17-42.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Personal Bankruptcy Law and Entrepreneurship

Author

Listed:
  • Geraldo Cerqueiro
  • Mar�a Fabiana Penas
  • Robert Seamans

Abstract

We study the effect of debtor protection on firm entry and exit dynamics. We find that more lenient personal bankruptcy laws lead to higher firm entry, especially in sectors with low entry barriers. We also find that debtor protection increases firm exit rates and that this effect is independent of firm age. Our results overall indicate that changes in debtor protection affect firm dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Geraldo Cerqueiro & Mar�a Fabiana Penas & Robert Seamans, 2017. "Personal Bankruptcy Law and Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 17-42, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
  • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:17-42
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2017/CES-WP-17-42R.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2017
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2017/CES-WP-17-42.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2017
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Song Han & Geng Li, 2011. "Household Borrowing after Personal Bankruptcy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43, pages 491-517, March.
    2. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger & Ron Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2007. "Volatility and Dispersion in Business Growth Rates: Publicly Traded versus Privately Held Firms," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2006, Volume 21, pages 107-180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Berger, Allen N. & Black, Lamont K., 2011. "Bank size, lending technologies, and small business finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 724-735, March.
    4. John Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2010. "Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young," Working Papers 10-17, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    5. John Armour & Douglas Cumming, 2008. "Bankruptcy Law and Entrepreneurship," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 10(2), pages 303-350.
    6. 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.
    7. Berger, Allen N. & Rosen, Richard J. & Udell, Gregory F., 2007. "Does market size structure affect competition? The case of small business lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 11-33, January.
    8. Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr, 2009. "Local Industrial Conditions and Entrepreneurship: How Much of the Spatial Distribution Can We Explain?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 623-663, September.
    9. Nicola Cetorelli & Philip E. Strahan, 2006. "Finance as a Barrier to Entry: Bank Competition and Industry Structure in Local U.S. Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 437-461, February.
    10. Tara Rice & Philip E. Strahan, 2010. "Does Credit Competition Affect Small‐Firm Finance?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 861-889, June.
    11. Grant, Charles, 2010. "Evidence on the insurance effect of bankruptcy exemptions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 2247-2254, September.
    12. Kerr, William R. & Nanda, Ramana, 2009. "Democratizing entry: Banking deregulations, financing constraints, and entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 124-149, October.
    13. Berger, Allen N. & Miller, Nathan H. & Petersen, Mitchell A. & Rajan, Raghuram G. & Stein, Jeremy C., 2005. "Does function follow organizational form? Evidence from the lending practices of large and small banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 237-269, May.
    14. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1979. "A General Equilibrium Entrepreneurial Theory of Firm Formation Based on Risk Aversion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 719-748, August.
    15. Scott Fay & Erik Hurst & Michelle J. White, 2002. "The Household Bankruptcy Decision," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 706-718, June.
    16. Jeremy Berkowitz & Michelle J. White, 2004. "Bankruptcy and Small Firms' Access to Credit," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 35(1), pages 69-84, Spring.
    17. William Kerr & Ramana Nanda, 2009. "Financing Constraints and Entrepreneurship," NBER Working Papers 15498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Berger, Allen N. & Cerqueiro, Geraldo & Penas, María F., 2011. "Does debtor protection really protect debtors? Evidence from the small business credit market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1843-1857, July.
    19. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    20. Larry H. Filer II & Jonathan D. Fisher, 2005. "The Consumption Effects Associated with Filing for Personal Bankruptcy," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(4), pages 837-854, April.
    21. Fan, Wei & White, Michelle J, 2003. "Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 543-567, October.
    22. Ron S Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2002. "The Longitudinal Business Database," Working Papers 02-17, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    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. Geraldo Cerqueiro & María Fabiana Penas & Robert Seamans, 2017. "Personal Bankruptcy Law and Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 17-42r, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    2. Pankaj C. Patel & Srikant Devaraj, 2021. "The state‐level exemption changes in Chapter 7 protection and entrepreneurial activity in the United States," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(5), pages 1089-1104, July.
    3. Geraldo Cerqueiro & María Fabiana Penas, 2017. "How Does Personal Bankruptcy Law Affect Startups?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(7), pages 2523-2554.
    4. Berger, Allen N. & Chen, Ruiyuan (Ryan) & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane, 2020. "Who wins and who loses from bank geographic deregulation? Analysis of financially constrained and unconstrained firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Pattison, Nathaniel, 2020. "Consumption smoothing and debtor protections," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    6. Kerr, William R. & Nanda, Ramana, 2009. "Democratizing entry: Banking deregulations, financing constraints, and entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 124-149, October.
    7. Geraldo Cerqueiro & Deepak Hegde & María Fabiana Penas & Robert C. Seamans, 2017. "Debtor Rights, Credit Supply, and Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(10), pages 3311-3327, October.
    8. William Kerr & Ramana Nanda, 2009. "Financing Constraints and Entrepreneurship," NBER Working Papers 15498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr & Ramana Nanda, 2015. "House Money and Entrepreneurship," Harvard Business School Working Papers 15-069, Harvard Business School.
    10. Michalski, Tomasz & Ors, Evren, 2012. "(Interstate) Banking and (interstate) trade: Does real integration follow financial integration?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 89-117.
    11. Jiang, Tianjiao & Levine, Ross & Lin, Chen & Wei, Lai, 2020. "Bank deregulation and corporate risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Berger, Allen N. & Cerqueiro, Geraldo & Penas, María F., 2011. "Does debtor protection really protect debtors? Evidence from the small business credit market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1843-1857, July.
    13. Edward L. Glaeser & Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2015. "Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(2), pages 498-520, May.
    14. Ọláyínká Oyèkọ́lá, 2021. "Finance and inequality in a panel of US States," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2739-2795, November.
    15. Canales, Rodrigo & Nanda, Ramana, 2012. "A darker side to decentralized banks: Market power and credit rationing in SME lending," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(2), pages 353-366.
    16. Allen N. Berger & William Goulding & Tara N. Rice, 2013. "Do Small Businesses Still Prefer Community Banks?," International Finance Discussion Papers 1096, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    17. Cole, Rebel & Sokolyk, Tatyana, 2016. "Who needs credit and who gets credit? Evidence from the surveys of small business finances," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 40-60.
    18. Kerr, Sari Pekkala & Kerr, William R. & Nanda, Ramana, 2022. "House prices, home equity and entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. census micro data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 103-119.
    19. Michelle J. White, 2008. "Bankruptcy: Past Puzzles, Recent Reforms, and the Mortgage Crisis," NBER Working Papers 14549, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Corradin, Stefano & Gropp, Reint & Huizinga, Harry & Laeven, Luc, 2016. "The effect of personal bankruptcy exemptions on investment in home equity," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 77-98.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Debtor Protection; Personal Bankruptcy; Entrepreneurship;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cen:wpaper:17-42. 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: Dawn Anderson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesgvus.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.