African American bankruptcy filers select Chapter 13 far more often than other debtors, who opt instead for Chapter 7, which has higher success rates and lower attorneys’ fees. Prior scholarship blames racial discrimination by attorneys. We propose an alternative explanation: Chapter 13 offers benefits, including retention of cars and driver’s licenses, that are more valuable to African American debtors because of relatively long commutes. We study a 2011 policy change in Chicago, which seized cars and suspended licenses of consumers with large traffic-related debts. The policy produced a large increase in Chapter 13 filings, especially by African Americans. Two mechanisms explain the disparate racial impact: African Americans were more likely to have traffic debts and incurred greater costs from car seizures and license suspension due to relatively long commutes. When we match African Americans to other debtors with similar commutes, we find no racial difference in Chapter 13 filing propensities.

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种族与破产：解释消费者破产中的种族差异

非裔美国人申请破产的人比其他债务人更频繁地选择第13章，后者选择第7章来提高成功率，降低律师费。以前的奖学金归咎于律师的种族歧视。我们提出另一种解释：第13章提供了好处，包括保留汽车和驾驶执照，由于通勤时间较长，这对非裔美国债务人来说更有价值。我们研究了2011年在芝加哥实施的一项政策变更，该政策没收了汽车并吊销了与交通相关的巨额债务的消费者的驾照。该政策大大增加了第13章的申请量，尤其是非洲裔美国人。两种机制解释了不同的种族影响：由于通勤时间较长，非裔美国人更有可能承担交通债务，并且因扣押汽车和吊销驾照而产生更高的成本。当我们将非裔美国人与通勤类似的其他债务人进行配对时，我们在第13章的申请倾向中没有发现种族差异。