Asset Exemptions and Consumer Bankruptcies: Evidence from Individual Filings
利用近十年所有消费者破产案件数据，结合各州住房豁免额变化，发现提高豁免额会立即且持续增加有房屋净值的债务人申请第7章破产，新申请者房屋净值更高但收入更低。
Combining case-level data on all consumer bankruptcies in the last decade with changes in states’ homestead exemptions, we estimate how exemptions affect the number and composition of bankruptcy filers. Exemption increases are followed by immediate and persistent rises in Chapter 7 filings by debtors with home equity. The new filers have more home equity but similar nonhousing wealth and lower incomes than the average filer with home equity. Thus, raising exemptions draws wealthier but lower-income households into bankruptcy. Moreover, most of the new filers report home equity that became fully protected only after the exemption increase. This result is consistent with debtors refusing to file with any nonexempt home equity for fear that they will lose their homes in bankruptcy. Finally, we investigate the extent to which debtors manipulate their reported home values to appear fully exempt and discuss how this affects the interpretation of our results.