phbs
Why Don't the Young File for Bankruptcy?
2023-09-27 17:58:17
We provide two explanations for why young people file fewer bankruptcies. The first is that young people delay bankruptcy so as to acquire a mortgage later. The second is that young people delay bankruptcy to wait until they have a higher credit limit on their credit card, which they can then write off in bankruptcy. We develop a lifecycle model with bankruptcy filing options to quantitatively examine the relative importance of these two channels. The model is estimated based on data on the universe of bankruptcy filings in Canada.