Claudia Steinwender (LMU Munich)
will give a talk on
“Broke, but not out of luck: Bankruptcy regulation and economic activity”
in the DICE research seminar.
Abstract: Failure is an inherent part of economic activity. This paper examines the role of institutions that regulate economic failure—specifically, bankruptcy laws—in 19th-century United States. The effects of bankruptcy laws were widely debated, as they provide insurance against adverse economic conditions while potentially inducing moral hazard. We exploit the repeated enactment and repeal of federal bankruptcy laws, combined with novel, high-resolution drought data from tree-ring chronologies, to analyze how these laws shaped farmers' responses to drought-induced harvest losses using data from the U.S. Agricultural Census.
You can find Claudia's website here: Claudia Steinwender.
She will be available for individual meetings on the day of the seminar. Giulia and Yihan will coordinate the schedule.