a new data set linking bankruptcy filings to credit bureau records. Our empirical strategy
uses the leniency of randomly assigned judges as an instrument for Chapter 13 protection.
We find that Chapter 13 protection decreases an index measuring adverse financial events
such as civil judgments and repossessions by 0.323 standard deviations and increases the
probability of being a homeowner by 13.2 percentage points. Chapter 13 protection has little …