The Business Failures Project, II: An Analysis of Methods of Investigation (with Dorothy S. Thomas)

Abstract

IN a previous article various problems in procedure and methodology arising out of an investigation into the antecedents of business failures were presented." The techniques employed to obtain the data were described and the immediate and more remote objectives were outlined. Since that time 598 bankruptcies from the District of New Jersey, comprising about two-thirds of all the bankruptcy cases in that District between October, 1929 and July, 1930, have been studied. The analysis of the results of these cases throws light on some of the methodological problems raised in the previous article.