This article measures the impact of state laws on defaulting borrowers. Prior literature has assessed the impact of laws that limit the enforcement of judgments on bankruptcy filings. However, (1) the majority of defaulting consumers do not file for bankruptcy, and (2) most debt collection takes...

This survey of the law and economics of consumer finance discusses economic models of consumer lending, and evaluates the major consumer finance laws in light of them. We focus on usury laws, restrictions on creditor remedies such as the ban on expansive security interests, bankruptcy law,...

Individuals account for more than a quarter of chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, and this share has grown over time. For individuals, chapter 11 is more expensive and complicated than the much more common chapter 13 because the applicable rules are a hybrid of those that apply in chapter 13 and...

This survey of the law and economics of consumer finance discusses economic models of consumer lending and evaluates the major consumer finance laws in light of them. We focus on usury laws; restrictions on creditor remedies, such as the ban on expansive security interests; bankruptcy law;...

Prior literature argues that optimal sanctions are fixed and maximal and that the optimal evidence threshold balances the social costs of wrongful convictions (lost deterrence) and wrongful acquittals (chilling of benign behavior). This chilling argument is an externality argument. If punishment...