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General / Thematic: Business and Human Rights: The Limits of the Law

Misfortune or Misdeed: An Empirical Study of Public Attitudes Towards Personal Bankruptcy

Author

Paul Ali, Lucinda O’Brien and Ian Ramsay

While the field of bankruptcy scholarship is well established, there has so far been very little scholarly investigation of the social context in which bankruptcy occurs. Scholars, politicians and other commentators tend to discuss this subject under the rubric of ‘bankruptcy stigma’.[1] Yet these discussions generally draw upon interviews with debtors,[2] or other indirect indicators of public opinion, such as newspaper articles.[3] They are seldom based upon surveys or interviews with members of the public.

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(2017) 40(3) UNSWLJ 1098: https://doi.org/10.53637/BYMJ3752

  1. See, eg, Teresa A Sullivan, Eli]abeth Warren and Jay Lawrence Westbrook, ‘Less Stigma or More Financial Distress: An Empirical Analysis of the Extraordinary Increase in Bankruptcy Filings’ (2006) 59 Stanford Law Review 213; Michael D Sousa, ‘Bankruptcy Stigma: A Socio-legal Study’ (2013) 87 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 435; Rafael Efrat, ‘Bankruptcy Stigma: A Socio-legal Study’ (2013) 87 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 435; Rafael Efrat, ‘Bankruptcy Stigma: Plausible Causes for Shifting Norms’ (2006) 22 Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal 481.
  2. See, eg, Sousa, above n 1.
  3. See, eg, Efrat, ‘Shifting Norms’, above n 1.