The goal of this collection is to explore debt neither as a problem nor a solution but as a phenomenon and to promote the exchange of knowledge to better comprehend why consumers and businesses decide to borrow money. It asks what happens to businesses and consumers under a heavy debt load, and what legal norms and institutions societies need to encourage the efficient use of debt while promoting a greater understanding of the global phenomenon of increased
indebtedness and societal dependence.

List of Contributors ; Preface ; I. Social Institutions That Create an Indebted World ; Chapter One ; Debt, Credit and Poverty in Early Modern England ; Craig Muldrew, Senior Lecturer in History, Queens' College, University of Cambridge ; Chapter Two ; Debt and the Simulation of Social Class ; Teresa A. Sullivan, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan ; Chapter Three ; "Hyperconsumption" and "Hyperdebt": A "Hypercritical" Analysis ; George Ritzer, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland ; II. Decisions to Lend ; Chapter Four ; Lender Incentives, Credit Risk, and Securitization: Evidence from the Subprime Mortgage Crisis ; Amir Sufi, Associate Professor of Finance, University of Chicago ; Chapter Five ; How and Why Credit Assessors "Get it Wrong" When Judging the Risk of Borrowers: Past and Present Evidence at Home and Abroad ; Paul Vaaler, Associate Professor of Management, University of Minnesota ; Gerry McNamara, Professor of Management, Michigan State University ; III. Decisions to Borrow ; Chapter Six ; The Psychology of Debt in Poor Households in Britain ; Stephen E.G. Lea, Professor of Psychology and Head of School, University of Exeter ; Avril J. Mewse, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Exeter ; Wendy Wrapson, Honorary Fellow in Psychology, University of Exeter ; Chapter Seven ; Brain, Decision, and Debt ; Brian Knutson, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Stanford University ; Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin, Doctoral Candidate in Psychology, Stanford University ; Chapter Eight ; The Limits of Enhanced Disclosure in Bankruptcy Law: Anticipated and Experienced Emotion ; Richard L. Wiener, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Law and Psychology Program, University of Nebraska at Lincoln ; Jason A. Cantone, Doctoral Candidate in Psychology, University of Nebraska at Lincoln ; Michael Holtje, Doctoral Candidate in Psychology, University of Nebraska at Lincoln ; Susan Block-Lieb, Professor of Law, Fordham University ; IV. Political and Legal Responses to Over-Indebtedness ; Chapter Nine ; The Virtue of Consumer Bankruptcy ; Heidi M. Hurd, David C. Baum Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, University of Illinois ; Chapter Ten ; Missing Debtors: National Lawmaking and Global Norm-Making of Corporate Bankruptcy Regimes ; Terence C. Halliday, Co-Director, Center on Law and Globalization of the American Bar Foundation & the University of Illinois College of Law, and Research Professor, American Bar Foundation ; Susan Block-Lieb, Professor of Law, Fordham University ; Bruce G. Carruthers, Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University ; Chapter Eleven ; Balance of Knowledge ; Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law, Harvard University ; Index