Data and Code for: The Economic Consequences of Bankruptcy Reform

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Tal Gross, Boston University; Ray Kluender, Harvard University; Feng Liu, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Matthew J. Notowidigdo, University of Chicago; Jialan Wang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Replication Kit Revision to Submit			02/18/2021 11:11:AM
_README.pdf	application/pdf	160.3 KB	03/24/2021 07:02:PM

Project Citation:

Gross, Tal, Kluender, Ray, Liu, Feng, Notowidigdo, Matthew J., and Wang, Jialan. Data and Code for: The Economic Consequences of Bankruptcy Reform. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-06-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/E129601V1

Project Description

Summary: A more generous consumer bankruptcy system provides greater insurance against financial risks but may also raise the cost of credit. We study this trade-off using the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), which increased the costs of filing for bankruptcy. We identify the effects of BAPCPA on borrowing costs using variation in the effects of the reform across credit scores. We find that a one-percentage-point reduction in bankruptcy-filing risk decreased credit-card interest rates by 70--90 basis points. Conversely, BAPCPA reduced the insurance value of bankruptcy, with uninsured hospitalizations 70 percent less likely to obtain bankruptcy relief after the reform.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Consumer bankruptcy

JEL Classification:
      D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
      D18 Consumer Protection
      K35 Personal Bankruptcy Law

Geographic Coverage: United States

Time Period(s): 2004 – 2007

Collection Date(s): 2004 – 2007

Universe: - Legal dockets for all consumer bankruptcies in 78 (of 94) United States bankruptcy courts
- Mintel Compere-media data on credit-card offers made to more than 2,000 consumers each month
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Consumer Credit Panel 1-in-48 sample of consumer credit reports
- hospital-discharge records for over half a million individuals merged with a ten-year panel of their credit reports.

Data Type(s): program source code

Collection Notes: The PACER data is publicly available, but the OSHPD data, TransUnion credit report data, the CFPD data, and the Mintel data are all non-public data, so we only include code to process this data in our repository. Please contact researchers for detailed information on how to obtain the data used in this study.

Methodology

Response Rate: N/A

Sampling: N/A

Data Source: - Legal dockets for all consumer bankruptcies in 78 (of 94) United States bankruptcy courts
- Mintel Compere-media data on credit-card offers made to more than 2,000 consumers each month
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Consumer Credit Panel 1-in-48 sample of consumer credit reports
- hospital-discharge records for over half a million individuals merged with a ten-year panel of their credit reports

Collection Mode(s): mail questionnaire

Scales: N/A

Weights: For Mintel analysis, we weight all credit-card offers using Mintel-provided weights designed to make the sample representative of the overall mail volume.

Unit(s) of Observation: Individual-level for Mintel and OSHPD analysis

Geographic Unit: United States

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-06-23]

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