Do deals with debt collectors alleviate consumer financial distress? Using new data linking court and credit registry records, we examine civil collection lawsuits where consumers can settle out of court. Random assignment of judges with different styles generates exogenous variation in the...

We investigate the role of information technology (IT) in the collection of delinquent consumer debt. We argue that the widespread adoption of IT by the debt collection industry in the 1990s contributed to the observed expansion of unsecured risky lending such as credit cards. Our model stresses...

Why would high-status organizations, presumably secure in their positions, resort to illegality? This study considered the possibility that status theory might have overestimated the relative security of high-status organizations. Our theory that an inability to meet associates' expectations...