By compiling a novel dataset from bankruptcy court dockets recorded in Delaware between 2001 and 2002, we build and … estimate a structural model of Chapter 13 bankruptcy. This allows us to quantify how key debtor characteristics, including … whether they are experiencing bankruptcy for the first time, their past due secured debt at the time of filing, and income in …

The 1990's witnessed a historically unprecedented number of personal bankruptcy filings. In response, congressional … debate over bankruptcy law has recently led to several proposals aimed at making it more difficult to exempt wealth in … bankruptcy. In this paper, I evaluate uniform exemption policy primarily within the context of the recent congressional proposal …

In U.S. data, income interruptions, the receipt of public insurance, and the incidence of personal bankruptcy are all … closely related. The central contribution of this paper is to evaluate both bankruptcy protection and public insurance in a … delivers two striking conclusions. First, we find that U.S. personal bankruptcy law is an important barrier to allowing the …