CIRJE-F- 534. Chen, Joe, Yun Jeong Choi and Yasuyuki Sawada, "Joint Liability Borrowing and Suicide", December 2007.

This paper shows that joint liability borrowing may put too much pressure on the borrower, mainly through the stigma in case of repayment failure, and leads to a vexing outcome|the suicide of the borrower. We provide a model of joint liabil- ity borrowing which facilitates credit market transaction ex ante but may induce suicides ex post in the bad state. We introduce some supportive evidence from a suicide survey in Japan.