{"id":3908,"date":"2007-06-20T10:41:12","date_gmt":"2007-06-20T14:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=3908"},"modified":"2008-05-23T13:38:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-23T17:38:00","slug":"are-mormons-bankrupting-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2007\/06\/are-mormons-bankrupting-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"“Are Mormons Bankrupting Utah?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

That is the question asked by Zeke Johnson and James Wright in a recent Suffolk University Law Review<\/i> article.* Their article reports on survey research that they conducted among Utah bankruptcy filers. The survey results were then matched with case files to provide additional data, and the results were then compared with the 2001 Consumer Bankruptcy Project. They conclude:<\/p>\n

Households in the state of Utah filed for bankruptcy at a rate of 24 per 1000 in 2004, which is approximately twice the national rate. The most easily accessible, and most often cited reasons for this revolve around demographic or behavioral aspects linked to the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s predominant religion: Mormonism. The data gathered in the Utah Bankruptcy Project strongly suggests that any attribution of the high bankruptcy rate in Utah to Mormon traits is misplaced and lacks explanatory power. Mormons appear slightly underrepresented among those filing for bankruptcy. In addition, demographic characteristics linked to Mormons, such as the high number of children, the young age of homeowners, and the payment of tithing do not appear to account for the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bankruptcy problem. While Mormons appear to fare slightly better in Utah than their peers, and likely do not cause the bankruptcy problem, they are also suffering financially more than their national peers. (pg. 628-629)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have some questions about the methodology used in this study, as well as the way in which the authors analyzed their data. I am also somewhat skeptical of their ultimate explanation, which is economic hardship. The problem with this is that it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t explain Utah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s high filing rate, unless one can somehow demonstrate unique economic hardship in Utah. For example, Utah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s filing rate may be determined the unique structure of Utah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s non-bankruptcy law. What are homestead exemptions or collections law like in Utah? Still, the study does seem to have the virtue of being the first study of Utah bankruptcy that actually collected information about religious affiliation and practice.<\/p>\n

*See Ezekiel Johnson & James Wright, Are Mormons Bankrupting Utah? Evidence from the Bankruptcy Courts<\/i>,40 Suffolk U. L. Rev. 607 (2007)<\/a> (westlaw access required)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That is the question asked by Zeke Johnson and James Wright in a recent Suffolk University Law Review article.*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}