AEAweb: Journal Article Full-Text Access
Note to Institutional Subscribers: If you normally access AEAweb journal content via your university or firm's subscription and receive this page, please click
here. The most likely causes of this are a recently changed IP address, a new subscription, or the renewal of a lapsed institutional subscription. This page will stop appearing on the next synchronisation of the document delivery and authentication systems.
You may also click here for pay-per-view, Athens login and other access options .
AEA Members, please click the button below to access the login form:
Li, Wenli,
Michelle J. White, and
Ning Zhu. 2011. "Did Bankruptcy Reform Cause Mortgage Defaults to Rise?."
,
3(4): 123-47.
Show Article Details
DOI: 10.1257/pol.3.4.123
Abstract:Homeowners in financial distress can use bankruptcy to avoid defaulting on their mortgages, since filing loosens their budget constraints. But the 2005 bankruptcy reform made bankruptcy less favorable to homeowners and therefore caused mortgage defaults to rise. We test this relationship and find that the reform caused prime and subprime mortgage default rates to rise by 23% and 14%, respectively. Default rates rose even more for homeowners who were particularly negatively affected by the reform. We calculate that bankruptcy reform caused mortgage default rates to rise by one percentage point even before the start of the financial crisis. (JEL D14, G01, G21, K35)
Additional links:
Download Data Set
Authors:
Li, Wenli (Federal Reserve Bank and Philadelphia)
White, Michelle J. (U CA, San Diego)
Zhu, Ning (Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, Shanghai Jiao Tong U)
JEL Classifications:
D14: Personal Finance
G01: Financial Crises
G21: Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
K35: Personal Bankruptcy Law
If you are an AEA member and do not have an AEAweb login, please
click here.
If you would like to become an AEA member, please see our
membership page.
If you arrived at this page via a journal article link, you will be redirected to the pdf after successful login.
If your first login attempt fails, and you have recently signed up for access or have recently changed your password, you may need to wait a few moments and try again.
Please contact us at
notify@aeaweb.org with any problems or questions.
Contents of Current Issues
June 2013 AER
Spring 2013 JEP
May 2013 AEJ: Policy
May 2013 AEJ: Micro
April 2013 AEJ: Macro
April 2013 AEJ: Applied
March 2013 JEL
Virtual Field Journals
In the News:
An article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives entitled, "The Growth of Finance" by Harvard Business School professors, Robin Greenwood and David Scharfstein, was recently explored by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. News & World Report cites Princeton-based Burton Malkiel's article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives as a preferred source of "sound financial advice" for investors.
The Huffington Post reports on a study addressing the influence of lifestyle factors on shrinking height in the elderly published in the April issue of AEJ: Applied Economics.
AEA in News Archive
Contact Us
