Did Bankruptcy Reform Cause Mortgage Defaults to Rise?

Wenli Li, Michelle J. White and Ning Zhu

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2011, vol. 3, issue 4, pages 123-47

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)

JEL-codes: D14 G01 G21 K35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.3.4.123
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