Auto lenders were perhaps the biggest winners of the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform. Cars depreciate quickly, so borrowers … to the market value of the car through a "cramdown" in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. The Reform prohibited cramdowns during the … eliminating cramdowns affected only one of the two types of consumer bankruptcy: Chapter 13. They exploit persistent historical …

This paper studies the optimal determination of bankruptcy exemptions for risk averse borrowers who use unsecured … sufficient to determine whether a bankruptcy exemption level is optimal, or should be increased or decreased. These variables are …' leverage, the borrowers' bankruptcy probability, and the change in bankrupt borrowers' consumption. An application of the …

access to unsecured credit (because of bankruptcy costs) and aggregate shocks, we show that the cyclical behavior of … credit match the sizes of credit and bankruptcy volatilities. We also find that when the right to file for bankruptcy does …

providing an overview of consumer bankruptcy law in the US and document the relevant institutional changes over time. We proceed … implications of various bankruptcy laws? And second, what caused the rise in filings over time? We end with a discussion of open …

of increases in the amount and share of delinquent debt (90 days past due or more) and of increases in bankruptcy risk …