We study the effect of personal wealth on entrepreneurial decisions using data on mineral
payments from Texas shale drilling to individuals throughout the United States. Large cash …

We exploit an episode of plausibly-random debt discharge, due to the inability of National
Collegiate to prove chain of title, to examine the effects of student debt relief on individual …

In 2013, the Dutch government mandated that new conforming mortgages must fully
amortize. Within a difference-in-differences design, we estimate that the marginal wealth …

We combine state minimum wage changes with individual‐level income and credit data to
estimate the effect of wage gains on the debt of low‐wage workers. In the three years …

Standard mortgage contracts include periodic debt repayment plans (amortization
schedules) designed to build-up illiquid savings in the form of home equity, which can be …

We examine how wealth windfalls affect self-employment decisions using data on cash
payments from claims on Texas shale drilling to people throughout the United States …

As home-sharing platforms have continued to proliferate over the past decade, regulators
are faced with important policy concerns as they address the impacts of these platforms. It is …

This dissertation has three independent chapters. The first chapter investigates how the
environmental liability of lenders affects debtors' behavior. I use US Census Bureau micro …

Following the arrival of news that fracking technology was commercially viable, leaseholders
of gas rights in Texas' Barnett Shale borrowed $12,800 more than non-leaseholders during …