diff --git a/presto-hive/src/main/java/io/prestosql/plugin/hive/HiveConfig.java b/presto-hive/src/main/java/io/prestosql/plugin/hive/HiveConfig.java
index 207f59dfc64..2752909a901 100644
--- a/presto-hive/src/main/java/io/prestosql/plugin/hive/HiveConfig.java
+++ b/presto-hive/src/main/java/io/prestosql/plugin/hive/HiveConfig.java
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ public class HiveConfig
     private HiveCompressionCodec hiveCompressionCodec = HiveCompressionCodec.GZIP;
     private boolean respectTableFormat = true;
     private boolean immutablePartitions;
-    private boolean createEmptyBucketFiles = true;
+    private boolean createEmptyBucketFiles;
     private int maxPartitionsPerWriter = 100;
     private int maxOpenSortFiles = 50;
     private int writeValidationThreads = 16;
diff --git a/presto-hive/src/test/java/io/prestosql/plugin/hive/TestHiveConfig.java b/presto-hive/src/test/java/io/prestosql/plugin/hive/TestHiveConfig.java
index 61d812bb59e..568caf753a7 100644
--- a/presto-hive/src/test/java/io/prestosql/plugin/hive/TestHiveConfig.java
+++ b/presto-hive/src/test/java/io/prestosql/plugin/hive/TestHiveConfig.java
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ public void testDefaults()
                 .setHiveCompressionCodec(HiveCompressionCodec.GZIP)
                 .setRespectTableFormat(true)
                 .setImmutablePartitions(false)
-                .setCreateEmptyBucketFiles(true)
+                .setCreateEmptyBucketFiles(false)
                 .setSortedWritingEnabled(true)
                 .setMaxPartitionsPerWriter(100)
                 .setMaxOpenSortFiles(50)
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ public void testExplicitPropertyMappings()
                 .put("hive.compression-codec", "NONE")
                 .put("hive.respect-table-format", "false")
                 .put("hive.immutable-partitions", "true")
-                .put("hive.create-empty-bucket-files", "false")
+                .put("hive.create-empty-bucket-files", "true")
                 .put("hive.max-partitions-per-writers", "222")
                 .put("hive.max-open-sort-files", "333")
                 .put("hive.write-validation-threads", "11")
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ public void testExplicitPropertyMappings()
                 .setHiveCompressionCodec(HiveCompressionCodec.NONE)
                 .setRespectTableFormat(false)
                 .setImmutablePartitions(true)
-                .setCreateEmptyBucketFiles(false)
+                .setCreateEmptyBucketFiles(true)
                 .setMaxPartitionsPerWriter(222)
                 .setMaxOpenSortFiles(333)
                 .setWriteValidationThreads(11)
diff --git a/presto-product-tests/src/main/java/io/prestosql/tests/hive/TestHiveBasicTableStatistics.java b/presto-product-tests/src/main/java/io/prestosql/tests/hive/TestHiveBasicTableStatistics.java
index a48b9191f51..0acdc43a0c1 100644
--- a/presto-product-tests/src/main/java/io/prestosql/tests/hive/TestHiveBasicTableStatistics.java
+++ b/presto-product-tests/src/main/java/io/prestosql/tests/hive/TestHiveBasicTableStatistics.java
@@ -307,19 +307,19 @@ public void testInsertBucketed()
             BasicStatistics statisticsAfterCreate = getBasicStatisticsForTable(onHive(), tableName);
             assertThatStatisticsAreNonZero(statisticsAfterCreate);
             assertThat(statisticsAfterCreate.getNumRows().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(25);
-            assertThat(statisticsAfterCreate.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(50);
+            assertThat(statisticsAfterCreate.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(25); // no files for empty buckets
 
             insertNationData(onPresto(), tableName);
 
             BasicStatistics statisticsAfterInsert = getBasicStatisticsForTable(onHive(), tableName);
             assertThat(statisticsAfterInsert.getNumRows().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(50);
-            assertThat(statisticsAfterInsert.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(100);
+            assertThat(statisticsAfterInsert.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(50); // no files for empty buckets
 
             insertNationData(onPresto(), tableName);
 
             BasicStatistics statisticsAfterInsert2 = getBasicStatisticsForTable(onHive(), tableName);
             assertThat(statisticsAfterInsert2.getNumRows().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(75);
-            assertThat(statisticsAfterInsert2.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(150);
+            assertThat(statisticsAfterInsert2.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(75); // no files for empty buckets
         }
         finally {
             onPresto().executeQuery(format("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS %s", tableName));
@@ -353,7 +353,7 @@ public void testInsertBucketedPartitioned()
             BasicStatistics firstPartitionStatistics = getBasicStatisticsForPartition(onHive(), tableName, "n_regionkey=1");
             assertThatStatisticsAreNonZero(firstPartitionStatistics);
             assertThat(firstPartitionStatistics.getNumRows().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(5);
-            assertThat(firstPartitionStatistics.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(10);
+            assertThat(firstPartitionStatistics.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(5); // no files for empty buckets
 
             String insert = format("INSERT INTO %s (n_nationkey, n_regionkey, n_name, n_comment) " +
                     "SELECT n_nationkey, n_regionkey, n_name, n_comment " +
@@ -364,13 +364,13 @@ public void testInsertBucketedPartitioned()
 
             BasicStatistics secondPartitionStatistics = getBasicStatisticsForPartition(onHive(), tableName, "n_regionkey=2");
             assertThat(secondPartitionStatistics.getNumRows().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(5);
-            assertThat(secondPartitionStatistics.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(10);
+            assertThat(secondPartitionStatistics.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(4); // no files for empty buckets
 
             onPresto().executeQuery(insert);
 
             BasicStatistics secondPartitionUpdatedStatistics = getBasicStatisticsForPartition(onHive(), tableName, "n_regionkey=2");
             assertThat(secondPartitionUpdatedStatistics.getNumRows().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(10);
-            assertThat(secondPartitionUpdatedStatistics.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(20);
+            assertThat(secondPartitionUpdatedStatistics.getNumFiles().getAsLong()).isEqualTo(8); // no files for empty buckets
         }
         finally {
             onPresto().executeQuery(format("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS %s", tableName));