This paper estimates the effect of bankruptcy court caseload on access to credit by exploiting firms’ plausibly exogenous exposure to the largest recorded drop in court backlog in the United States following the 2005 consumer bankruptcy reform. I show that a drop in court congestion reduces the time firms spend in bankruptcy and increases recovery values, which is priced into credit spreads and loan maturities. Consistent with a shock to credit supply, less congested courts increase firm leverage but leave default risk unchanged. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that backlog in bankruptcy courts costs corporate borrowers at least $740 million per year in interest payments.

本文通过利用公司在 2005 年消费者破产改革后美国法院积压记录减少的最大记录中可能存在的外生风险来估计破产法庭案件量对获得信贷的影响。我表明，法庭拥堵的减少减少了公司在破产中花费的时间并增加了恢复价值，这被计入了信用利差和贷款到期日。与信贷供应冲击一致，较不拥挤的法院增加了公司杠杆，但保持违约风险不变。粗略的计算表明，破产法庭的积压使企业借款人每年至少要支付 7.4 亿美元的利息。