Focusing on home owners, the paper discusses the reduction in a household’s credit access due to bankruptcy filing and … its two effects that may deter a household from filing for bankruptcy. Empirical evidence presented in the paper suggests … that a household with a bankruptcy record is about 30% more likely to lose home ownership and consequently the mortgage …

Thousands of U.S. households filed for bankruptcy just before the bankruptcy law changed in 2005. That rush-to-file was … more pronounced, we find, in states with more generous bankruptcy exemptions and lower credit scores. We take that finding … as evidence that the new law effectively reduces exemptions, which in turn should reduce the ?demand? for bankruptcy and …