Journal article
The Hidden Dimension of Business Bankruptcy in Australia
Lucinda O'Brien, Ian Ramsay, Paul Ali
Australian Business Law Review | Thomson Reuters | Published : 2018
Abstract
This study is the first empirically based analysis of business bankruptcy to be conducted in Australia. It aims to identify key differences between debtors who declare business bankruptcy and those who declare non-business or “personal” bankruptcy, and to explore the extent to which there might be a “hidden” population of business debtors among those formally identified as personal debtors. This question is significant in light of the Commonwealth Government’s imminent changes to bankruptcy law, which will reduce the period of bankruptcy from three years to one in a bid to promote entrepreneurship. Some commentators suggest that these reforms should only apply to business debtors. However th..
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Grants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
Lucinda O'Brien: Research Fellow in the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne. Ian Ramsay: Harold Ford Professor of Commercial Law and Director of the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne. Paul Ali: Associate Professor and a member of the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne. The authors thank the Australian Financial Security Authority, particularly Chief Economist and Statistician, River Paul, for providing the data discussed in this article. The authors also thank Dr Malcolm Anderson, for carrying out the statistical analysis described in the article, and the anonymous reviewer for providing helpful comments on the draft. This research has been supported by the Australian Research Council (Linkage Grant LP130101022).