Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978. The 2005 legislation introduced a means test based on income to establish eligibility for Chapter …, 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 …

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 …

We argue that the 2005 bankruptcy abuse reform (BAR) contributed to the surge in subprime foreclosures that followed … its passage. Before BAR, distressed mortgagors could free up income by filing bankruptcy and having their unsecured debts … home equity bankruptcy exemptions; filers in low-exemption states were not very protected before BAR, so they would be less …

market competition, lending to households, and personal bankruptcy rates in the United States. We exploit the exogenous … decreased, and (3) bankruptcy rates rose. Further, we find that lending and bankruptcy rates increased more in states with …