TY - BOOK ID - 137261110 TI - What Determines Consumer Financial Distress? Place- and Person-Based Factors AU - Keys, Benjamin J. AU - Mahoney, Neale. AU - Yang, Hanbin. AU - National Bureau of Economic Research. PY - 2020 PB - Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:137261110 AB - We use credit report data to study consumer financial distress in America. We show there are large, persistent disparities in financial distress across regions. To understand these patterns, we conduct a "movers" analysis. For collections and default, there is only weak convergence following a move, suggesting these types of distress are not primarily caused by place-based factors (e.g., local economic conditions and state laws) but instead reflect person-based characteristics (e.g., financial literacy and risk preferences). In contrast, for personal bankruptcy, we find a sizable place-based effect, which is consistent with anecdotal evidence on how local legal factors influence personal bankruptcy. ER -