Marital status and the decision to file for personal bankruptcy: A duration model approach

This paper examines how changes in marital status and the length of time in current marital status affect the probability of filing for personal bankruptcy. The results show that the probability of filing differs significantly by marital status. Divorced households are more likely to file in the first two years after divorce while married households and single households file later in their tenure. A further contribution of this paper is that it represents the first use of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine whether there is duration dependence in personal bankruptcy. Copyright Academy of Economics and Finance 2004