Theories of Overindebtedness: Interaction of Structure and Culture
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Jean Braucher
Consumer bankruptcy scholars typically stress either a structural or a cultural account of individuals’ problems with debt. Drawing on the history of poverty research, this article argues that research on consumer overindebtedness and bankruptcy should avoid the pitfall of seeing structural and cultural factors as opposing explanations. Deregulation of the credit industry and an incomplete social safety net are key structural conditions that lead to a culture hospitable to overindebtedness. Furthermore, the interaction of structure and culture has practical policy implications. Structural changes such as interest-rate deregulation inevitably transform both business and consumer culture. Policies designed to create a different consumer culture will have a hard time when pitted against strong structural causes of overindebtedness. At a minimum, efforts to create a culture of personal financial responsibility need a strong structural base, such as public education starting at a young age, and could easily require a generation or more to take hold.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Facts on the Ground and Reconciliation of Divergent Consumer Insolvency Philosophies
- Theories of Overindebtedness: Interaction of Structure and Culture
- Conservative Economics and Optimal Consumer Bankruptcy Policy
- The Evolution of Bankruptcy Stigma
- Optimizing Consumer Credit Markets and Bankruptcy Policy
- Bankruptcy Policy in Light of Manipulation in Credit Advertising
- The Value of Home Ownership
- Credit Markets, Exemptions, and Households with Nothing to Exempt
- Velvet Bankruptcy
- Comprehensive Reform of Japanese Personal Insolvency Law
- The Chief Enforcement Officer and Insolvency in Israeli Law
- Personal Bankruptcy in Korea: Challenges and Responses
- Functionalism and Political Economy in the Comparative Study of Consumer Insolvency: An Unfinished Story from England and Wales
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Facts on the Ground and Reconciliation of Divergent Consumer Insolvency Philosophies
- Theories of Overindebtedness: Interaction of Structure and Culture
- Conservative Economics and Optimal Consumer Bankruptcy Policy
- The Evolution of Bankruptcy Stigma
- Optimizing Consumer Credit Markets and Bankruptcy Policy
- Bankruptcy Policy in Light of Manipulation in Credit Advertising
- The Value of Home Ownership
- Credit Markets, Exemptions, and Households with Nothing to Exempt
- Velvet Bankruptcy
- Comprehensive Reform of Japanese Personal Insolvency Law
- The Chief Enforcement Officer and Insolvency in Israeli Law
- Personal Bankruptcy in Korea: Challenges and Responses
- Functionalism and Political Economy in the Comparative Study of Consumer Insolvency: An Unfinished Story from England and Wales
