Liquidity Constraints and Consumer Bankruptcy: Evidence from Tax RebatesTal Gross, Matthew Notowidigdo and Jialan Wang No 17807, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc Abstract: This paper estimates the extent to which legal fees prevent liquidity-constrained households from declaring bankruptcy. To do so, it studies how the 2001 and 2008 tax rebates affected consumer bankruptcy filings. We exploit the randomized timing of the rebate checks and estimate that the rebates caused a significant, short-run increase in consumer bankruptcies in both years, with larger effects in 2008 when the rebates were more generous and more widely distributed. Using hand-collected data from individual bankruptcy petitions, we document that the rebates caused an increase in the average liabilities and the liabilities-to-income ratios of filers. JEL-codes: H31 K35 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published as “Liquidity Constraints and Consumer Bankruptcy: Evidence from Tax Rebates,” with Matthew Notowidigdo and Jialan Wang. Review of Economics and Statistics, accepted. Manuscript. Appendix. Featured in the June 2012 NBER Digest Media Coverage: Los Angeles Times; Huffington Post; Vox; Forbes; CNN. Older Version: NBER Working Paper #17807 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17807 Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from Access Statistics for this paper More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC. |
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