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Full-Text Articles in Law
Credit Markets, Exemptions, And Households With Nothing To Exempt, Richard M. Hynes
Credit Markets, Exemptions, And Households With Nothing To Exempt, Richard M. Hynes
Faculty Publications
American bankruptcy law has offered a "fresh start" in every state for over one hundred years. As a result, econometric studies of consumer bankruptcy often focus on one of the few aspects of the law that has varied significantly across time and across states: exemptions. Professors Gropp, Scholz and White published the first article to test the effect of exemptions on credit markets. Consistent with theory, they found that residents of states with larger exemptions pay higher interest rates than those in states with lower exemptions andface an increased probability that they will be denied credit. These effects were most …
Bankruptcy And State Collections: The Case Of The Missing Garnishments, Richard M. Hynes
Bankruptcy And State Collections: The Case Of The Missing Garnishments, Richard M. Hynes
Faculty Publications
Recent bankruptcy reforms were spurred in part by a bankruptcy filing rate that has more than doubled in the last ten years and that has risen by approximately six hundred percent over the last generation. Some attribute this surge in filings to Americans' greater willingness to avoid debts by declaring bankruptcy. Most academics, however, argue that more Americans are forced into bankruptcy by crushing debt burdens and aggressive collections techniques. Surprisingly, the literature has largely ignored data on the use of these collections techniques. This Article examines the use of one of the most important collections tools, garnishment, in two …