IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ysm/wpaper/ysm128.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regulating Consumer Bankruptcy: A Theoretical Inquiry

Author

Listed:
  • Barry Adler
  • Ben Polak
  • Alan Schwartz

Abstract

This paper uses a principal/agent framework to analyze consumer bankruptcy. The bankruptcy discharge partly insures risk averse borrowers against bad income realizations, but also reduces the borrower's incentive to avoid insolvency. Among our results are: (a) High bankruptcy exemptions increase bankruptcy insurance but at the cost of reducing the borrower's incentives to stay solvent; (b) Reaffirmations -- renegotiations -- have ambiguous efficiency effects in general, but the right to renegotiate is especially valuable for relatively p

Suggested Citation

  • Barry Adler & Ben Polak & Alan Schwartz, 1999. "Regulating Consumer Bankruptcy: A Theoretical Inquiry," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm128, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Jul 2000.
    • Handle: RePEc:ysm:wpaper:ysm128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.som.yale.edu/icfpub/publications/2425.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Domowitz, Ian & Sartain, Robert L, 1999. "Incentives and Bankruptcy Chapter Choice: Evidence from the Reform Act of 1978," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 461-487, June.
    2. Jeremy Berkowitz & Michelle J. White, 1999. "The effect of personal bankruptcy law on small firms' access to credit," Proceedings 779, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    3. Haugen, Robert A. & Senbet, Lemma W., 1988. "Bankruptcy and Agency Costs: Their Significance to the Theory of Optimal Capital Structure," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 27-38, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sadeghi, Ali & Kibler, Ewald, 2022. "Do bankruptcy laws matter for entrepreneurship? A Synthetic Control Method analysis of a bankruptcy reform in Finland," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    2. Wei Fan & Michelle J. White, 2002. "Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity," NBER Working Papers 9340, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Wenli Li, 2001. "To forgive or not to forgive : an analysis of U.S. consumer bankruptcy choices," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Spr, pages 1-22.
    4. Douglas Cumming & Minjie Zhang, 2023. "Bankruptcy law and angel investors around the world," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(7), pages 1256-1277, September.
    5. Eva-Maria Steiger, 2006. "Ex-Ante vs. Ex-Post Efficiency in Personal Bankruptcy Proceedings," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-17, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    6. Andrew B. Carver, 2007. "The Market Failure for Student Loans," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 23(Fall 2007), pages 101-115.

    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. Régis Blazy & Laurent Weill, 2006. "The Impact of Legal Sanctions on Moral Hazard when Debt Contracts are Renegotiable," LSF Research Working Paper Series 06-09, Luxembourg School of Finance, University of Luxembourg.
    2. Régis Blazy & Nirjhar Nigam, 2019. "Corporate insolvency procedures in England: the uneasy case for liquidations," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 89-123, February.
    3. Abrapuspa Ghani Talattov & Nur Azura Sanusi & Suhal Kusairi & Abu Hassan Shaari, 2016. "The Role Of Corporate Zakat On Optimal Capital Structure Policy: Evidence From Malaysian Firms," Journal of Islamic Monetary Economics and Finance, Bank Indonesia, vol. 1(2), pages 259-292, February.
    4. Wei Fan & Michelle J. White, 2001. "Personal Bankruptcy and the Level of Entrepreneurial Activity," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 01-11, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    5. Edward J. Bird & Paul A. Hagstrom & Robert Wild & Janet A. Weiss, 1999. "Credit card debts of the poor: High and rising," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 125-133.
    6. V. M. González-Méndez & Francisco González-Rodríguez, 2000. "Procedimientos de resolución de insolvencia financiera en España: costes de insolvencia y transferencia de riqueza," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 24(2), pages 357-384, May.
    7. Ewelina Mruk & Inmaculada Aguiar-Díaz & Maria Victoria Ruiz-Mallorquí, 2019. "Use of formal insolvency procedure and judicial efficiency in Spain," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 435-470, June.
    8. Blazy, Régis & Deffains, Bruno & Umbhauer, Gisèle & Weill, Laurent, 2013. "Severe or gentle bankruptcy law: Which impact on investing and financing decisions?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 129-144.
    9. Ying Yan, 1997. "Credit rationing, bankruptcy cost, and the optimal debt contract for small business," Working Papers (Old Series) 9702, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    10. Hamoto, Azad & Correia, Ricardo, 2012. "A theoretical analysis of the stages and events experienced by financially distressed firms," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB 13115, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    11. Martel, Jocelyn, 1996. "Solutions au stress financier," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 72(1), pages 51-78, mars.
    12. John, Kose & Senbet, Lemma W., 1998. "Corporate governance and board effectiveness1," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 371-403, May.
    13. Blazy, Régis & Martel, Jocelyn & Nigam, Nirjhar, 2014. "The choice between informal and formal restructuring: The case of French banks facing distressed SMEs," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 248-263.
    14. Daigle, Katherine H & Maloney, Michael T, 1994. "Residual Claims in Bankruptcy: An Agency Theory Explanation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(1), pages 157-192, April.
    15. Nadeem Ul Haque, 2002. "Vision and Ownership - Understanding Economic Reform," PIDE Books, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, number 2002:1.
    16. Qianqian Huang & Ryoonhee Kim, 2019. "Capital structure decisions along the supply chain: Evidence from import competition," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(6), pages 873-894, August.
    17. Grillet, Luc L., 1991. "Insurance hedging in the theory of the firm," Discussion Papers, Series II 166, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    18. Ming Fang & Rui Zhong, 2004. "Default Risk, Firm's Characteristics, and Risk Shifting," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2461, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Mar 2005.
    19. Adler, Barry & Polak, Ben & Schwartz, Alan, 2000. "Regulating Consumer Bankruptcy: A Theoretical Inquiry," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(2), pages 585-613, June.
    20. Pascal François & Alon Raviv, 2014. "Heterogeneous Beliefs and the Choice Between Private Restructuring and Formal Bankruptcy," Cahiers de recherche 1401, CIRPEE.

    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:ysm:wpaper:ysm128. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/smyalus.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.