This paper surveys the research on optimal consumption and investment problem of an agent who is subject to bankruptcy that has a speciied utility (reward or penalty). The bankruptcy utility, modeled by a parameter, may be the result of welfare subsidies, the agent's innate ability to recover from bankruptcy, psychic costs associated with bankruptcy, etc. Models with nonnegative consumption, po...

An employee’s annual earnings fall by 10% the year her firm files for bankruptcy and a cumulative present value of 67% over seven years. This effect is more pronounced in thin labor markets among small firms that are ultimately liquidated. Compensating wage differentials this “bankruptcy risk” approximately 2.3% whose credit rating falls from AA to BBB, about same magnitude as debt tax benefits...

This study examines the economic rationale for limiting firms’ risk. We argue that risk increases the cost of doing business for two reasons. First, risk causes operating inefficiencies and imposes adjustment costs. Second, diverse stakeholders must be compensated for their risk-bearing. We find empirical support for positive risk-cost relations using various model specifications and risk measu...

In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for bankruptcy. To investigate medical contributors to bankruptcy, we surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filers in five federal courts and subsequently completed in-depth interviews with 931 of them. About half cited medical causes, which indicates that 1.9-2.2 million Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical bankruptcy. Among those w...

this paper explores the leverage determinants across firms’ sizesbased on the two main theories behind the capital structure, the trade-offand the pecking order theories. a panel data is sued to find therelationship between capital structure and the variables that proxy forbenefits and costs of debt during 1990 to 2006. our findings show thatboth principles help to explain the capital structure...

Consumer debt and bankruptcy are central issues today because of their explosive trends over the last 20 years in the U.S. economy. However, there is no convincing explanation for these facts. A drop in information costs, a potential cause, has not been evaluated mainly because there is no quantitative theory of consumer debt and bankruptcy where the cost of information plays an important role....

Over the last two decades, both bankruptcy and obesity rates in the U.S. have seen a steady rise. As obesity is one of the leading causes of medical and morbidity related economic costs, its influence on personal bankruptcy is analyzed in this study. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we employ a duration model to investigate the relative importance of obesity on the timing o...

Are consumers who have filed for personal bankruptcy before excluded from the unsecured credit market? Using a unique data set of credit card mailings, we directly explore the supply of unsecured credit to consumers with the most conspicuous default risk—those with a bankruptcy history. On average, over one-fifth of personal bankruptcy filers receive at least one offer in a given month, with th...