Elizabeth Warren, Other Bankruptcy Experts to Examine Bankruptcy Data at Iowa Conference

Newswise — Congressional TARP overseer Elizabeth Warren will attend a conference at the University of Iowa next month that is the first gathering of bankruptcy experts to analyze data from her Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP) database and develop better public bankruptcy policy.

The scholars are looking for national and regional trends, insights and other revelations in the CPB data that they hope will lead to a broader understanding of why people declare bankruptcy, and how it affects individuals and the economy.

Their research topics include: the first examination of the role credit cards play in consumer debt and bankruptcy; how consumers decide whether to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy or Chapter 7 bankruptcy; and why African-Americans who file for bankruptcy are more often forced into more burdensome Chapter 13 bankruptcy than Chapter 7.

The conference, "Borrowing to the Brink: Consumer Debt in America," will be held June 8-15 at the University of Iowa.

Warren is the Harvard law professor and bankruptcy expert appointed by Congress to ensure the financial institutions that receive federal TARP money are spending it properly.

Among other bankruptcy experts expected to participate are Adam Levitin of Georgetown University, who also serves on Congress' TARP oversight panel with Warren; Robert Lawless of the University of Illinois; and Katherine Porter of the University of Iowa, a protégé of Warren who is coordinating the seminar.

The bankruptcy database was compiled by researchers led by Warren in 2006 that used surveys, interviews and public records searches to examine more than 2,500 bankruptcy filings made in the first quarter of that year. The database is leading to a wealth of research that helps to explain who files for bankruptcy and why.

Please get in touch with me if you're interested in talking with any of the seminar organizers. You can reach me at [email protected], or call me at 319-384-0010 or on my cell at 319-541-8434. More information is also available on the UI Obermann Center's web site at http://www.uiowa.edu/obermann/debt/.