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Targeted Debt Relief and the Origins of Financial Distress: Experimental Evidence from Distressed Credit Card Borrowers

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  • Will Dobbie
  • Jae Song

Abstract

We study the drivers of financial distress using a large-scale field experiment that offered randomly selected borrowers a combination of (i) immediate payment reductions to target short-run liquidity constraints and (ii) delayed debt write-downs to target long-run debt constraints. We identify the separate effects of the payment reductions and debt write-downs using variation from both the experiment and cross-sectional differences in treatment intensity. We find that the debt write-downs significantly improved both financial and labor market outcomes despite not taking effect for three to five years. In sharp contrast, there were no positive effects of the more immediate payment reductions. These results run counter to the widespread view that financial distress is largely the result of short-run constraints.

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  • Will Dobbie & Jae Song, 2017. "Targeted Debt Relief and the Origins of Financial Distress: Experimental Evidence from Distressed Credit Card Borrowers," NBER Working Papers 23545, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23545
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Will Dobbie & Paul Goldsmith‐Pinkham & Neale Mahoney & Jae Song, 2020. "Bad Credit, No Problem? Credit and Labor Market Consequences of Bad Credit Reports," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(5), pages 2377-2419, October.
    2. Stephanie M. Wilshusen, 2011. "Meeting the demand for debt relief," Consumer Finance Institute discussion papers 11-04, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    3. Dean Karlan & Jonathan Zinman, 2009. "Observing Unobservables: Identifying Information Asymmetries With a Consumer Credit Field Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(6), pages 1993-2008, November.
    4. Sumit Agarwal & Gene Amromin & Itzhak Ben-David & Souphala Chomsisengphet & Tomasz Piskorski & Amit Seru, 2017. "Policy Intervention in Debt Renegotiation: Evidence from the Home Affordable Modification Program," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(3), pages 654-712.
    5. Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Isaac Sorkin & Henry Swift, 2020. "Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(8), pages 2586-2624, August.
    6. Rodney Ramcharan & Amir Kermani & Marco Di Maggio, 2015. "Monetary Policy Pass-Through: Household Consumption and Voluntary Deleveraging," 2015 Meeting Papers 256, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Satyajit Chatterjee & Dean Corbae & Makoto Nakajima & José-Víctor Ríos-Rull, 2007. "A Quantitative Theory of Unsecured Consumer Credit with Risk of Default," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(6), pages 1525-1589, November.
    8. Benjamin J. Keys & Tomasz Piskorski & Amit Seru & Vincent Yao, 2014. "Mortgage Rates, Household Balance Sheets, and the Real Economy," NBER Working Papers 20561, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kleiner, Kristoph & Stoffman, Noah & Yonker, Scott E., 2021. "Friends with bankruptcy protection benefits," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 578-605.
    2. Marco Di Maggio & Ankit Kalda & Vincent Yao, 2019. "Second Chance: Life without Student Debt," NBER Working Papers 25810, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Holger Mueller & Constantine Yannelis, 2022. "Increasing Enrollment in Income‐Driven Student Loan Repayment Plans: Evidence from the Navient Field Experiment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(1), pages 367-402, February.
    4. Albuquerque, Bruno & Varadi, Alexandra, 2022. "Consumption effects of mortgage payment," Bank of England working papers 963, Bank of England.
    5. Aydin, Deniz, 2021. "Forbearance, Interest Rates, and Present-Value Effects in a Randomized Debt Relief Experiment," EconStor Preprints 248467, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. Montebruno, Piero & Silva, Olmo & Szumilo, Nikodem, 2021. "Judge Dread: court severity, repossession risk and demand in mortgage and housing markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110474, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Giorgia Barboni & Juan Camilo Cárdenas & Nicolás de Roux, 2022. "Behavioral Messages and Debt Repayment," Documentos CEDE 20257, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    8. Burke, Jeremy, 2021. "Do prize-linked incentives promote positive financial behavior? Evidence from a debt reduction intervention," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    9. Berlinger, Edina & Kiss, Hubert János & Khayouti, Sára, 2022. "Loan forbearance takeup in the Covid-era - The role of time preferences and locus of control," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    10. Sumit Agarwal & Slava Mikhed & Barry Scholnick & Man Zhang, 2022. "Reducing Strategic Default in a Financial Crisis," Working Papers 21-36, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    11. Molnár, György & Berlinger, Edina & Dobránszky-Bartus, Katalin, 2021. "Lejárt tartozások fogságában [Overdue debt as a poverty trap]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(7), pages 709-735.
    12. Edina Berlinger & Sára Khayouti & Hubert János Kiss, 2022. "Time discounting predicts loan forbearance takeup," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2201, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    13. Aydin, Deniz, 2023. "Forbearance vs. Interest Rates: Tests of Liquidity and Strategic Default Triggers in a Randomized Debt Relief Experiment," EconStor Research Reports 268646, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    14. de Bruijn, Ernst-Jan & Vethaak, Heike & Koning, Pierre & Knoef, Marike, 2023. "Debt Relief for the Financially Vulnerable: Impact on Employment, Welfare Receipt, and Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 16336, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • K35 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Personal Bankruptcy Law

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