Assuming a risk-neutral bank and assuming household utility to be exponential, we show how under information symmetry the covariance of income and loan repayments may explain higher household borrowings than in the case without default option. Under ex post information asymmetry and positive...

The 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) includes two educational provisions which require debtors to complete an approved credit counseling course prior to filing for bankruptcy and a financial education course prior to the discharge. Recent debates have raised...

Bankruptcy law now requires individuals to complete a financial education class to receive a discharge of debts. Using data from the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project, this chapter examines debtors' attitudes about the value of financial education. The data shows that debtors' attitudes vary by...

It is estimated that payday lenders made $40 billion of loans in 2010. But these loans are controversial, with one of the politically charged claims being that the high interest rates on payday loans trap consumers in a “cycle of debt.” We test this claim by conducting a field experiment...

This article reviews the law and economics of consumer debt collection and its regulation, a topic that has taken on added urgency in light of the announcement by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that it is considering new regulations on the subject. Although stricter regulation of...

This article provides an introduction to a law review symposium by the Journal of Law, Economics, and Policy on our book (co-authored with Michael E. Staten), Consumer Credit and the American Economy (Oxford 2014). The conference, held November 2014, collects several articles responding to and...

Mortgage counseling is regarded as an integral tool in ensuring appropriate choices by prospective home buyers. We use micro-level data from an urban voluntary counseling program aimed at disadvantaged households to assess its effectiveness. We find substantially lower expost delinquency rates...

We specify and estimate a lifecycle model of consumption, housing demand and labor supply in an environment where individuals may file for bankruptcy or default on their mortgage. Uncertainty in the model is driven by house price shocks, education specific productivity shocks, and catastrophic...

For a half century, nonprofit credit counseling organizations have offered financial education and budget counseling sessions at nominal cost to borrowers. They also negotiate comprehensive repayment plans with a borrower's unsecured creditors. These repayment plans provide an alternative to...