Melissa Jacoby's scholarship takes interdisciplinary approaches to bankruptcy, debtor-creditor and commercial law and she has won two awards for her work on the intersection of law, debt, and health. She is the Graham Kenan Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jacoby is a co-principal investigator of the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project, the first nationally representative academic study of families in bankruptcy. Ongoing research projects include analyses of the role of the judge in business bankruptcy, a proposal for all-asset sales in chapter 11, an empirical study of debtor-creditor relationships between patients and providers, and an empirical study of bankruptcy among lower income homeowners.
Bankruptcy and Home Mortgage Delinquency
In or Out of Mortgage Trouble? A Study of Bankrupt Homeowners (with Daniel T. McCue and Eric M. Belsky), American Bankruptcy Law Journal (2011)
We examine the determinants of missed payments and foreclosure initiation among a national sample of...
Making Debtor Remedies More Effective (2010)
Commissioned for a conference on credit markets at Harvard Business School in February 2010, this...
The Value(s) of Foreclosure Law Reform, Pepperdine Law Review (2010)
This symposium contribution examines the starkly different values reflected in traditional legal literature on foreclosure...
Empirical and Policy Perspectives on Consumer Bankruptcy Law in the United States (in ENDEUDAMIENTO DEL CONSUMIDOR E INSOLVENCIA FAMILIAR) (2009)
This chapter, published in Spanish, offers new empirical data from the U.S. on consumer bankruptcy...
Bankruptcy, Debt, and Health
Dodd-Frank, Regulatory Innovation, and the Safety of Consumer Financial Products, North Carolina Banking Institute Journal (2011)
Among the many parts of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, few...
In or Out of Mortgage Trouble? A Study of Bankrupt Homeowners (with Daniel T. McCue and Eric M. Belsky), American Bankruptcy Law Journal (2011)
We examine the determinants of missed payments and foreclosure initiation among a national sample of...
Credit for Motherhood, North Carolina Law Review (2010)
This essay builds on prior work exploring the impact of consumer lenders who sell credit...
Managing Medical Bills on the Brink of Bankruptcy (with Mirya Holman), Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law & Ethics (2010)
This paper presents original empirical evidence on financial interactions between medical providers and their patients...
The Value(s) of Foreclosure Law Reform, Pepperdine Law Review (2010)
This symposium contribution examines the starkly different values reflected in traditional legal literature on foreclosure...
Corporate Reorganization
Presentation: Odious Debt and Commercial Law Principles: Some Skepticism, Duke Law School Symposium on Odious Debt and State Corruption (2007)
Fast, Cheap, and Creditor Controlled: Is Corporate Reorganization Failing?, Buffalo Law Review (2006)
The Bankruptcy Code at Twenty-Five and the Next Generation of Lawmaking, American Bankruptcy Law Journal (2004)
Legislative Process and Bankruptcy
Making Debtor Remedies More Effective (2010)
Commissioned for a conference on credit markets at Harvard Business School in February 2010, this...
Managing Medical Bills on the Brink of Bankruptcy (with Mirya Holman), Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law & Ethics (2010)
This paper presents original empirical evidence on financial interactions between medical providers and their patients...
Empirical and Policy Perspectives on Consumer Bankruptcy Law in the United States (in ENDEUDAMIENTO DEL CONSUMIDOR E INSOLVENCIA FAMILIAR) (2009)
This chapter, published in Spanish, offers new empirical data from the U.S. on consumer bankruptcy...
Intellectual Property and Bankruptcy
Foreclosing on Fame: Exploring the Uncharted Boundaries of the Right of Publicity (with Dianne Leenheer Zimmerman), New York University Law Review (2002)
Auctioning Kim Basinger: The Imminent Collision of Bankruptcy and the "Right of Publicity", Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser (2001)
Judicial Behavior - Bankruptcy Courts
Making Debtor Remedies More Effective (2010)
Commissioned for a conference on credit markets at Harvard Business School in February 2010, this...
Fast, Cheap, and Creditor Controlled: Is Corporate Reorganization Failing?, Buffalo Law Review (2006)
Ripple or Revolution? The Indeterminacy of Statutory Bankruptcy Reform, American Bankruptcy Law Journal (2005)
The Bankruptcy Code at Twenty-Five and the Next Generation of Lawmaking, American Bankruptcy Law Journal (2004)
Comparative Insolvency Regimes
Empirical and Policy Perspectives on Consumer Bankruptcy Law in the United States (in ENDEUDAMIENTO DEL CONSUMIDOR E INSOLVENCIA FAMILIAR) (2009)
This chapter, published in Spanish, offers new empirical data from the U.S. on consumer bankruptcy...
Review Essay on Comparative Consumer Insolvency Regimes (by Jacob Ziegel, 2003), Canadian Business Law Journal (2004)
Generosity versus Accessibility: Bankruptcy, Consumer Credit, and Health Care Finance in the U.S., Consumer Bankruptcy in Global Perspective (2003)
Parenthood Market
Credit for Motherhood, North Carolina Law Review (2010)
This essay builds on prior work exploring the impact of consumer lenders who sell credit...
The Debt Financing of Parenthood, Law and Contemporary Problems (2009)
In this contribution to the symposium Show Me the Money: Making Markets in Forbidden Exchange,...
Consumer Financial Protection
Dodd-Frank, Regulatory Innovation, and the Safety of Consumer Financial Products, North Carolina Banking Institute Journal (2011)
Among the many parts of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, few...
In or Out of Mortgage Trouble? A Study of Bankrupt Homeowners (with Daniel T. McCue and Eric M. Belsky), American Bankruptcy Law Journal (2011)
We examine the determinants of missed payments and foreclosure initiation among a national sample of...