Instructions for Designing a Study

These are instructions for designing a study to run in the online database. Your study will run instantly as soon as you submit it. The results will the in the form of a printable report that shows the choices you made and the categories of statistics you requested.

Step 1: Select a set of cases for study.  The default settings will include all cases in study. If you wish to study only a narrower group of cases — only the bankruptcies of Communications companies, only cases filed in New York, or only asbestos cases — choose that type of case from the menus in the First Step.  To see the menus, uncheck the "all" boxes or click on the green "select" links.  Then choose the kinds of cases you wish to study by checking as many of the boxes as you wish.  You check (or uncheck) a box by clicking on it with your mouse.

Tip: Don't limit your study too much.  For every category of case listed in the menus, the BRD includes at least one case.  But if you make multiple exclusions of categories of cases, no cases may be left in the study.

Step 2: Select the reports you want.  The default settings give you all available reports.  Reports are free, so the only reason not to order them all is to prevent clutter on your printout.

Tip: When learning to use the database, order all the reports.  Once you become familiar with them, you can order only what you need.

Step 3: Chose how to aggregate the data.  To "aggregate" the data is to combine it into categories — put all the 1999 cases, the New York cases, or the confirmed plan cases together in a single total.  You must choose one, and only one variable.  (The variables are the same as in Step 1.)  Each report will include a separate line for each category of the variable you select here.  For example, if you leave the default D. Dispositions checked in the Third Step, you will receive separate totals for each category of dispositions: 363 sale, confirmed, converted, data not available, etc.

Tip: Most studies seek to understand some difference: how cases change over time, how prepackaged cases differ from nonprepackaged cases, or how communications company cases differ from other cases.  Select the variable here that describes that difference: A. Filing Years in the first case, F. Plan types in the second and C. Industry in the third.

Tip: If you wanted to choose more than one method of aggregation, chose one for the first study and then go back and do the other in a second study.  For example, to compare year-by-year Delaware filings with year-by-year New York filings, aggregate by year.  Include only Delaware filings in the first study and only New York filings in the second.  Then match them using the printouts.

Revising your study design:  Once you see the results of your study, you may want to change it.  Simply use the "Back" button on your browser to return to the study design.  Your settings have been preserved.  You can make changes to them or start over from the defaults by clicking the button "Restore Default Choices."

Tip: When you begin a second study, don't forget to uncheck unwanted limitations from the first.  For example, if you studied Communications cases and then decide to study all cases filed after 1989, you will need to restore the "All Industries" default.