Personal Insolvency and Data Collection Systems

Countries around the world are introducing or improving their personal insolvency regimes, but frequently the effects of these reforms are not evaluated, and the reforms themselves are not supported by adequate data analysis. This paper proposes the establishment and implementation of data collection systems for personal insolvency, and examines the characteristics of such systems to assess the performance of personal insolvency regimes and to extract information useful not only for the design of personal insolvency, but also for other social policies. Adequate data collection can contribute to effectively achieving the goals of personal insolvency reform.