How Bankruptcy Reform Made the Housing Crisis Worse

Bad paper

I read both the short and long versions and I cannot find any data in the paper that support the statement that bankruptcy reform exacerbated the housing crisis. I agree that there are a couple of sentences where the authors make that assertion but there are no data I can find in the paper that support it. In addition, they do not explain how the 2005 reforms can be isolated as a factor from other events since 2005. All the authors actually prove is that defaulting homeowners have an increased prospect of winding up in bankruptcy and people in bankruptcy have an increased prospect of defaulting on their mortgages. I would not have thought that someting so obvious was worthy of study. And they do not analytically connect that proposition and the headline proposition that the 2005 reforms caused things to be worse.