We analyze the properties of a three-sector network economy characterized by credit relationships connecting downstream and upstream firms (inside credit) and credit relationships connecting firms and banks (outside credit). The network topology changes over time due to an endogenous process of partner selection (the preferred-partner choice rule). The output of simulations shows that a busines...

We investigate how personal bankruptcy law affects small firms’ access to credit. When a firm is unincorporated, its debts are personal liabilities of the firm’s owner, so that lending to the firm is legally equivalent to lending to its owner. If the firm fails, the owner has an incentive to file for personal bankruptcy, since the firm’s debts will be discharged. The higher the exemption level,...

This paper discusses four bankruptcy-related policy issues. First, what is the economic rationale for having a bankruptcy procedure at all and what defines an economically efficient bankruptcy procedure? Second, why did the number of U.S. bankruptcy filings increase so dramatically between 1980 and 2005? Third, a major bankruptcy reform went into effect in the U.S. in 2005—what did it do and ho...

This paper uses a principal/agent framework to analyze consumer bankruptcy. The bankruptcy discharge partly insures risk-averse borrowers against bad income realizations but also reduces the borrower’s incentive to avoid insolvency. Among our results are the following: (a) high bankruptcy exemptions increase bankruptcy insurance but at the cost of reducing the borrower’s incentives to stay solv...

Models of capital investment in industrial organization typically treat bankruptcy as an involuntary and final outcome, yet firms that file under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code typically do so voluntarily and with the expectation that they will eventually emerge. Moreover, Chapter 11 permits cancellation or renegotiation of longterm contracts for labor and capital, effectively providing...

A moral hazard problem develops when a factor cannot contract upon a seller’s ex-post level of credit management. Because of the deleterious price impact of the moral hazard problem, sellers with a sufficiently high bankruptcy risk may be unable to factor their entire accounts receivable pool, even though they offer recourse. The structure of the equilibrium factoring contract is empirically te...

Most of the investments in practice are carried out without certain horizons. There are many factors to drive investment to a stop. In this paper, we consider a portfolio selection policy with market-related stopping time. Particularly, we assume that the investor exits the market once his wealth reaches a given investment target or falls below a bankruptcy threshold. Our objective is to minimi...

6007 Background: The risk of bankruptcy for cancer patients is not well characterized and may vary by cancer type, treatment, and personal factors. Linking the Washington State SEER registry with Western District of Washington bankruptcy court records, we measured the rate of bankruptcy after cancer and identified factors that increased risk among common cancers. METHODS We included adults ag...

Utah ranks first in the nation in the number of consumer bankruptcies per household. This study describes 2,567 Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 cases filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Utah in 1997. Median debt level was $31,981 for Chapter 7 and $41,626 for Chapter 13 cases. While Utah boasts a high proportion of Chapter 13 repayment plans, only 10.8% of these cases were successfully completed. D...

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...