The distinctive features of women in the Australian bankruptcy system: An empirical study

According to data published by Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), Australian women and men offer strikingly similar reasons for their entry into bankruptcy. Yet a more detailed analysis of AFSA's data indicates that women and men often go bankrupt in very different social and economic circumstances. This empirical study draws upon a unique dataset, obtained from AFSA, containing the de‐identified records of more than 28,000 individuals. It also draws upon a series of focus groups with the staff of three nonprofit organisations, including financial counsellors and consumer solicitors. It finds that, in general, women in bankruptcy are likely to be economically disadvantaged, relative to men, as measured by income, access to wages, reliance on government benefits, real estate ownership and utilities debt. It also finds that women in bankruptcy are much more likely than men to be single with dependants and that these women experience a greater degree of gendered disadvantage than other women in the bankruptcy system.     

BUSINESS FAILURE AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY

The paper contrasts the characteristics of bankrupt proprietors with those of debtors using Part X of the Bankruptcy Act. The findings, which are based partly on a survey of official files on bankrupts and Part X debtors, reveal class-related differences between the two groups, with bankrupts coming from relatively underprivileged backgrounds. This finding is moderated by factors such as ethnicity, partnership arrangements and time in business. The data are interpreted sociologically, with special reference to ethnomethodological concepts like deviance and stigma which emphasise the denouncement and symbolic expulsion of debtors; and structuralist explanations which associate differential use of the Bankruptcy Act with social inequality.     

破产免责制度的现代理论

文章阐述了美国和日本破产免责制度的法理和正当化理论 ,探讨了免责制度的政治、文化和经济基础以及所包含的信用经济学和人的尊严的原理。作者认为当代的破产免责制度是建立在高度发达的信用经济基础之上的消费债务者救济制度 ,其正当化的理论也具有鲜明的时代特征 ,可以从信用经济学和人的尊严的原理中得到正当化     

重整期间公司控制权二元模式探究——兼论我国破产管理人制度的不足与完善

对已陷入经济困境的公司进行破产重整或者清算,其目的在于对损失进行分配并且以提升公司价值和减少利害关系人损失的方式运营公司资产。随着破产重整在现代破产法中的作用越来越被重视,重整期间公司经营控制权及其主体间的问题也由此突现。我国现行破产法所建立的破产管理人模式和美国破产法中确立的DIP模式是两种不同的公司控制模式,它们既来源于不同理念又将产生不同的司法实践结果。我国现行的控制权制度应当借鉴美国经验进行完善。

Abstract：

The aim of integrating and clearing accounts of the companies in economic difficulty is to distribute its loss and manage its capital in order to improve the value of the company and reduce the loss of people beneficially concerned.Along with the attention paid to the function of bankruptcy integration in relevant law,right of control and issues among subjects during the integration period are highlighted.The bankruptcy manager pattern in our present law is different from the DIP pattern established in American bankruptcy law due to different origins of ideas and legal practical results.We should learn from American experience concerning the system of right of control.     

An economic analysis of nanofood labeling

The paper examines the economic effects of labeling food nanotechnology products using an analytical framework of heterogeneous consumers and imperfectly competitive suppliers. Labeling results in increased costs for nanofood producers (the cost effect of the labeling policy), reduced consumer uncertainty regarding the nature of the food product (certainty effect), and can affect consumer attitudes towards nanofoods by being perceived as a warning signal (stigma effect). In this context, nanofood labeling can change the perceived quality differences between nanofoods and their conventional and organic counterparts, with such changes being more salient when the stigma effect is large, when consumers have low awareness of food nanotechnology in the absence of labeling, and/or when competition among nanofood suppliers is more intense. Despite its empirical relevance, the impact of a labeling policy on consumer preferences (and the economic ramifications of such impact) has largely been ignored by the theoretical literature on the economics of labels. Our analysis shows that it matters. Specifically, our study shows that the market and welfare effects of labeling are case-specific and dependent on consumer awareness of, and attitudes towards food nanotechnology before and after the introduction of the policy as well as the relative magnitude of the cost, certainty and stigma effects of nanofood labeling. Our analytical findings also suggest that the effects of nanofood labels on consumer welfare are asymmetric with certain groups of consumers benefiting even when labeling has a stigma effect on nanofoods.     

Exercising moral agency in the contexts of objective reality: toward an integrated account of ethical consumption

This paper engages with two contrasting approaches to conceptualising and studying consumer behaviour that appear to dominate existing research on consumption. On one hand, agency‐focused perspectives take an individual consumer to be the primary author of practice and a basic unit of analysis. On the other hand, socio‐centric paradigms focus on the social roots of consumption activities and the wider societal contexts in which they take place. The need to provide a more balanced view of consumption phenomena has been acknowledged, yet not adequately acted upon. This paper begins to fill this gap through relevant theoretical and empirical contributions. First, we provide a critical review of the dominant theoretical perspectives on consumption in general and ethical consumption in particular, highlight their key ontological assumptions and explain how they preclude a fuller understanding of the ways in which consumer practices are moulded and shaped. Taking a critical realist approach, we then present the findings from qualitative analysis of consumers' ethical food practices to empirically demonstrate the role of human agency and social structure in creating and shaping ethical consumption. Thus, by means of theoretical analysis and empirical research this paper responds to the call for a more comprehensive understanding of consumption and provides a consolidated account of consumer behaviour which acknowledges and explains the complex ensemble of individual and systemic powers in which consumer practices are contained.     

黑龙江省企业破产现状的分析

企业破产制度自1989年开始在黑龙江省实施以来,至今已是第15个年头。在此期间,全省企业的破产工作取得了较大的进展,并呈现出以下特点:企业破产规模巨大,政策性破产在总资产规模上居于主导;行业广泛,重点突出;审判行为与政府行为的统一及职工安置问题是首要问题。通过对黑龙江省企业破产的现状进行分析,以期能对全省企业破产制度的运行有所裨益。     

Loss volatility,bankruptcy, and the demand for reinsurance

Insurers in our model reinsure to lower the risk of bankruptcy. In the conceptual part of the study, we show that given bankruptcy cost, reinsurance may be demanded even if the insurer is risk-neutral. The model allows us to assess how the insurer's surplus, size, and volatility of losses affect the amount of reinsurance the insurer purchases. As predicted by our comparative statics analysis, we find empirically that property/casualty and medical malpractice insurers with higher prereinsurance loss volatility, lower surplus-to-premium ratios, and smaller sizes demand more reinsurance.     

Managing in the Trenches of Consumer Care: The Challenges of Understanding and Initiating the Advance Care Planning Process

To better understand how community-based long-term care providers define advance care planning and their role in the process, we conducted 8 focus groups with 62 care managers (social workers and registered nurses) providing care for Ohio's Medicaid waiver program. Care managers shared that most consumers had little understanding of advance care planning. The care managers defined it broadly, including legal documentation, social aspects, medical considerations, ongoing communication, and consumer education. Care managers saw their roles as information providers, healthcare team members, and educators/coaches. Better education, resources, and coordination are needed to ensure that consumer preferences are realized.     

Global financial markets, derivative securities, and systemic risks

The global use of derivative instruments has grown in importance, because they are less expensive tools for hedging risks and for investing in securities. Because several entities have incurred substantial losses in derivatives, leading to bankruptcy in a few cases, and because the size of the derivative market appears so large, legislators and regulators around the world, who have limited information about derivatives, fear that further possible bankruptcies pose a systemic risk to the economy. This fear is unwarranted. Affected entities will continue to make infrastructure investments to support their valuable derivative business, a more beneficial alternative to political solutions.     

Revealed preference tests for consistency with weakly separable indirect utility

Since Varian (Econometrica 50:945–973, 1982; Review of Economic Studies 50:90–110, 1983) made checking for consistency with revealed preference conditions more accessible to empirical researchers; researchers have often used revealed preference procedures to test their maintained hypotheses and narrow the scope of their demand studies. The tests developed by Varian are for the direct utility function, while researchers estimating demand systems often find it convenient to model consumer behavior with an indirect utility function. Unfortunately structure revealed in the direct utility function does not necessarily follow for the indirect utility function. To remedy this problem, we set forth conditions for checking consumer data for consistency with revealed preference conditions for minimization and weak separability of the indirect utility function.     

The Citizenship of Excluded Groups: Challenging the Consumerist Agenda

The language of consumerism suggests that through involvement in consumer processes, consumers can influence policy formation and service provision. This paper examines, as illustrative cases in Australia, how two groups of consumers, people with a mental illness and older people, engage with these consumer processes. It finds they critically evaluate the opportunity offered by consumer processes for inclusion in policy and programmes. Both people with a mental illness and interviewed older people indicated how they acted as "agents involved in interpreting their needs", despite finding that in consumer processes their needs were predefined. Rather than allowing themselves to be constructed as passive objects, they positioned themselves as active citizens, having agency not as individual consumers but through drawing on networks. The responses of both groups go some distance toward dismantling power differences between professionals and "consumers", suggesting that social policy and programmes for both people with mental illness and older people can and sometimes do develop in a context of greater inclusivity.     

The Family Law Act, 1975: One Consumer's Viewpoint

This is a paper about some of my experiences as a consumer of the Family Law Act, 1975. I decided to write about these experiences because few other consumers have done so. The literature in this area is dominated by the experts — the lawyers, the court counsellors, the social scientists. There is no formal provision for consumers' opinion to be considered. My personal experiences highlighted how different it was to be on the receiving end as a consumer in contrast to my academic understanding of the Family Law Act as a university educator. Unless consumers begin to voice their opinions loudly and clearly, we are not going to see further reforms to this legislation, and indeed the high expectations of the people who created the Family Law Act will not be realized. I believe my professional background, personal experiences and the time lapse since my case, afford me the opportunity to evaluate the effects of the Family Court upon me. In attempting to take a dispassionate view of this process, I hope others will take heart and write about their experiences too.     

The dislocation of agriculture and food: a network analysis of interlocking directorates in New Zealand's corporate economy

Abstract

As a political project, ‘agri-food’ calls for improved communication between New Zealand's land-based industries and the business of food. Such communication may be enhanced by the sharing of company directors, a social practice whose interlocks create information flows across the economy. These flows can overcome market fragmentation and help establish a common sense of purpose. However, a social network analysis of interlocks between New Zealand's largest businesses shows few signs of the communication structures that agri-food requires. Food is the most isolated sector, primary production the most connected. Brokerage and clique analysis shows that primary production's major partners are the consumer and finance sectors. These two sectors have very different profiles and their differences drive primary production networks in two opposed directions. Primary production is not only dislocated from food, it is also deeply divided between relatively small locally-owned consumer companies and large overseas-owned banks.     

The Personal Costs of Subprime Lending and the Foreclosure Crisis: A Matter of Trust,Insecurity, and Institutional Deception*

Objective. Research on widespread loan failures suggests that many of the mortgage loans that were made since 2000 were of a deceptive or predatory nature. This study explores the experiences and sentiments of those who are at risk of foreclosure within a broader framework of trust, individualization, and ontological security. Methods. Interviews examine families' lending experience and how they have coped with their personal troubles that resulted from their housing crisis. Results. As many of these loans were of a deceptive or predatory nature, individuals are likely to reflect on the psychological consequences of their predicament. Although these findings suggest that these individuals have lost trust in the housing market, many have internalized their situation as a personal failure. In addition, feelings of anxiety, stress, insecurity, and uncertainty have come to characterize their experiences. Conclusions. This research calls for policy recommendations that seek to restore confidence and to ensure greater consumer protection in financial markets.     

Taste uncertainty and status quo effects in consumer choice

We use reference-dependent expected utility theory to develop a model of status quo effects in consumer choice. We hypothesise that, when making their decisions, individuals are uncertain about the utility that will be yielded by their consumption experiences in different ‘taste states’ of the world. If individuals have asymmetric attitudes to gains and losses of utility, the model entails acyclic reference-dependent preferences over consumption bundles. The model explains why status quo effects may vary substantially from one decision context to another and why some such effects may decay as individuals gain market experience.     

The 'Consumer Principle' in the Care of Elderly People: Free Choice and Actual Choice in the German Welfare State

In the mid-1990s, together with new long-term care legislation, the German welfare state introduced care markets and consumer choice between family care and different types of formal care. However, instead of using the new option to choose publicly funded care by long-term care agencies, the majority of elderly people in need of care continued to decide in favour of care exclusively provided by family members. The article examines how the persistence of family care in spite of the new options of consumer choice can be explained, using data from representative surveys on the care of elderly people in Germany and the results of guided interviews by the authors with family members involved in care. The findings indicate that there are two main reasons. The first is that elderly people and their families orient their behaviour towards traditional care values in which the first priority is given to mutual support between spouses and generations. The second reason is that elderly people on the one hand and care agencies on the other have substantially different definitions of a good quality of care.     

Credit Unions: A Partial Solution to the Consumer Credit Problems of Low Income Families

An anomaly of Australia's economic system is that those who can least afford to pay dearly for consumer credit (low income families), are the ones who must pay more. It is suggested that a partial solution to the consumer credit problems of low income families lies in the use of credit unions. This paper examines the consumer credit problems of such families, illustrates how credit unions function and indicates where they may be useful in providing cheap credit to low income families.     

Tasting off-flavors: food science,sensory knowledge and the consumer sensorium

Abstract

In food science and technology, understanding off-flavors has a significance with both technical and commercial implications. In the food industry in the United States, it is a widely held truism that consumers will not buy a product if they do not like the way it tastes or if it contains unpleasant flavors. But how can science determine when food is off putting, and how do scientists learn to address bad tastes in their experimental and technical practice? Based on ethnographic work with food scientists in the United States, this paper is a reflexive account of learning to taste off-flavors, a form of sensory learning that utilizes the scientist’s own body as a kind of instrument. The paper argues that a particular understanding of the consumer sensorium emerges through food scientists’ approach to off-flavors. This is an image of the consumer as a chemically receptive sensory system that is highly sensitive to compounds at trace levels. By utilizing the sensitivity of their own senses, food scientists exploit the relationship between distaste, memory and sensory perception as a form of training to produce future aesthetic memories of off-flavors that can be deployed in a technical context.     

Consumer Privacy: Balancing Economic and Justice Considerations

Consumer privacy is at the center of an ongoing debate among business leaders, privacy activists, and government officials. Although corporations face competitive pressures to collect and use personal information about their customers, many consumers find some methods of collection and use of their personal information unfair. We present a justice theory framework that illustrates how consumer privacy concerns are shaped by the perceived fairness of corporate information practices. We describe a set of global principles, fair information practices, which were developed to balance consumer privacy concerns with an organization's need to use personal information. We conclude by discussing three alternatives for implementing fair information practices with particular attention to the Internet: government regulation, industry self-regulation, and technological solutions .