Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/45989 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5459
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
A personal bankruptcy law that allows for a fresh start after bankruptcy reduces the individual risk involved in entrepreneurial activity. On the other hand, as risk shifts to creditors who recover less of their credit after a debtor's bankruptcy, lenders may charge higher interest rates or ration credit supply, which can hamper entrepreneurship. Both aspects of a more forgiving personal bankruptcy law are less relevant for wealthy potential entrepreneurs who still risk losing their wealth, but tend not to face higher interest rates because they provide collateral. This paper illustrates these effects in a model and tests the hypotheses derived by exploiting the introduction of a fresh start policy in Germany in 1999 as a natural experiment, based on representative household panel data. The results indicate that the insurance effect of a more forgiving personal bankruptcy law exceeds the interest effect and on balance encourages less wealthy individuals to enter into entrepreneurship.
Subjects: 
personal bankruptcy law
insolvency
entrepreneurship
fresh start
JEL: 
K35
G33
L26
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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