Estimating the Effect of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 on the Bankruptcy Rate

Personal bankruptcy rates in the United States have been rising for decades. These increases reflect growing economic distress within families, a declining stigma of personal bankruptcy, or both. After bankruptcy filings had grown to record levels, however, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Preve...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:The American bankruptcy law journal 2010-06, Vol.84 (3), p.327
Hauptverfasser: Weller, Christian E, Morzuch, Bernard J, Logan, Amanda
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Personal bankruptcy rates in the United States have been rising for decades. These increases reflect growing economic distress within families, a declining stigma of personal bankruptcy, or both. After bankruptcy filings had grown to record levels, however, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Prevention Act of 2005 (BAPCPA). The bankruptcy rate indeed fell sharply immediately after BAPCPA came into effect in October of 2005. In time, however, filings began to rebound. Our analysis has four steps. First, we consider whether the bankruptcy rate changed around the time of BAPCPA's enactment. Second, we study the bankruptcy rate after the break that we identified in the first step of our analysis. Third, we forecast the bankruptcy rates that would have prevailed without BAPCPA in 2007. Fourth, we repeat the analyses for Chapter 13 filings to determine if they declined and if so, whether their decrease mirrored those of total filings.
ISSN:0027-9048