Does Personal Financial Distress Affect Workers’ Performance? Evidence From Real Estate Agents

This study examines how personal financial distress affects workers’ performance. Using the real estate brokerage industry as a setting and personal bankruptcy filing as a proxy for personal financial distress, we find that sale prices of agent-represented houses are lower in the year when agents are financially distressed than the non-distressed year, relative to the control group. We also find that the less desirable sales’ outcomes induced by distressed agents spill over to homeowners’ future buying activities. These owners subsequently buy houses with higher loan-to-value (LTV) ratios in lower-quality neighborhoods.