We use survey data to study American households’ propensity to default when the value of their mortgage exceeds the … value of their house even if they can afford to pay their mortgage (strategic default). We find that 26% of the existing … the house. Yet, 17% of households would default, even if they can afford to pay their mortgage, when the equity shortfall …

How do credit standards on the mortgage market affect neighbourhood choice and the resulting level of urban segregation …-2006 mortgage credit boom on the level of school segregation. Census tract racial composition is strongly correlated with the racial … composition of the 10 closest schools in the cross section. Matching a national data set of mortgage originations with annual …

, especially, the financial cost of filing for bankruptcy. We study the effects of the reform on bankruptcy, insolvency, and …. We find that the decline in bankruptcy filings resulted in a rise in the rate and persistence of insolvency as well as an … that insolvency is associated with worse financial outcomes than bankruptcy, as insolvent individuals have less access to …

driving asset prices to ‘overshoot’ equilibrium when an asset bubble bursts - threatening widespread insolvency and what …

under limited liability should be characterized by higher than average insolvency and employment growth rates. We test these … characterized by higher growth and higher insolvency rates than comparable firms under full liability. Surprisingly, the likelihood … liquidation, while the propensity to insolvency is not affected by the owner’s age. The basic empirical results hold in pooled …