The Persistence of Financial Distress
利用专有面板数据，发现美国消费者中35%曾经历财务困境，但大部分困境事件集中在不到10%的借款人身上；通过扩展非正式违约的无担保债务模型，纳入时间偏好异质性可解释这一现象。
Abstract Using proprietary panel data, we show that many U.S. consumers experience financial distress (35% when distress is defined by having debt in severe delinquency, e.g.) at some point in their lives. However, most distress events are concentrated on a much smaller proportion of consumers in persistent trouble: fewer than 10% of borrowers account for half of all distress events. These facts can be largely accounted for in a straightforward extension of a workhorse model of unsecured debt with informal default that accommodates a simple form of heterogeneity in time preference. Received November 10, 2017; editorial decision November 12, 2018 by Editor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh.