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Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity

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  • Wei Fan
  • Michelle J. White

Abstract

The U.S. personal bankruptcy system functions as a bankruptcy system for small businesses as well as consumers, because debts of non-corporate firms are personal liabilities of the firms' owners. If the firm fails, the owner has an incentive to file for bankruptcy, since both business debts and the owner's personal debts will be discharged. In bankruptcy, the owner must give up assets above a fixed exemption level. Because exemption levels are set by the states, they vary widely. We show that higher bankruptcy exemption levels benefit potential entrepreneurs who are risk averse by providing partial wealth insurance and therefore the probability of owning a business increases as the exemption level rises. We test this prediction and find that the probability of households owning businesses is 35% higher if they live in states with unlimited rather than low exemptions. We also find that the probability of starting a business and the probability of owning a corporate rather than non-corporate business are higher for households that live in high exemption states.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Fan & Michelle J. White, 2002. "Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity," NBER Working Papers 9340, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9340
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    Cited by:

    1. Corradin, S. & Gropp, R. & Huizinga, H.P. & Laeven, L., 2010. "Who Invests in Home Equity to Exempt Wealth from Bankruptcy?," Discussion Paper 2010-118, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    2. Joanna Woronkowicz & Douglas S. Noonan, 2019. "Who Goes Freelance? The Determinants of Self-Employment for Artists," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(4), pages 651-672, July.
    3. Groen, Jeffrey A. & White, Michelle J., 2004. "In-state versus out-of-state students: the divergence of interest between public universities and state governments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1793-1814, August.
    4. Jeffrey A. Groen & Michelle J. White, 2003. "In-State versus Out-of State Students: The Divergence of Interest between Public Universities and State Governments," NBER Working Papers 9603, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    JEL classification:

    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
    • K2 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law

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