Being a parent is difficult. This is particularly true for women undergoing Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Using a novel dataset comprising 102,952 bankruptcy cases across 64 districts, we find that debtors with dependents are not only more likely to choose Chapter 13 over Chapter 7, but also 8...

Random case assignment is thought to be an important feature of decision-making in federal courts because it helps guard against favoritism (actual or perceived) toward particular parties or types of cases. In bankruptcy courts, cases are randomly assigned to both judges and trustees. In Chapter...

African American bankruptcy filers are more likely to select Chapter 13 than other debtors, who opt instead for Chapter 7, which has higher success rates and lower attorney fees. Prior scholarship blames racial discrimination by bankruptcy attorneys. We present an alternative explanation:...