Through a comparison of serially and once bankrupt firms, we examine those factors that lead to a successful reorganization. We find that serially bankrupt firms generally fail to restructure their top management around the time of their initial reorganization while over 70% of our sample of...

Using an empirical analysis from Chapter 7 cases in five judicial districts, this article estimates the direct costs in typical small business Chapter 7s. The article finds that direct costs are lower than commonly portrayed, constituting a mean of 6.1% of total assets of 13.5% of total...

In the symposium “Bankruptcy and Race: Is There a Relation?,” participants responded to our earlier article on race and bankruptcy chapter choice that appeared in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. Our article found that African Americans were overrepresented in chapter 13 and found...

In “Race, Attorney Influence, and Bankruptcy Chapter Choice,” which appeared in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, we reported on two studies. The first study used real-world bankruptcy data and documented a large racial disparity in bankruptcy chapter choice. Even after controlling for...

Apologies result in better outcomes for wrongdoers in a variety of legal contexts. Previous research, however, has primarily addressed settings in which a clear victim receives the apology. This research examines the influence of apologies on a different kind of legal decision — the decision...

We report on racially disparate uses of chapter 13 bankruptcy. Currently, approximately 1,500,000 bankruptcy petitions are filed each year, with about 30% of those petitions being chapter 13 cases. Although chapter 13 can offer some legal advantages for persons seeking to protect valuable assets...