Jeff Thredgold, president of Utah-based Thredgold Economic Associates and a consultant to Zions Bank, said while the percentage of LDS filers was smaller than the percentage of Latter-day Saints in the population, the survey sample is too small and the differences are insignificant.

"In order to make a really definitive statement about the connection between bankruptcy and religious affiliation you need probably a larger sample size," Thredgold said. "If a typical Mormon family is paying tithing, by definition there are dollars leaving the household that could have been used for debt service or different things. So you could make a case that paying tithing, at least on the surface, could contribute to higher levels of bankruptcy or delinquency."

The study was based on 281 surveys conducted in August 2004. Debtors received questionnaires when they appeared at a mandatory meeting of creditors. Survey questions asked a debtor's religion, level of religious devotion and donations to charity.

Ezekial Johnson, co-author of the study and a securities attorney in Chicago, said the study was prompted by numerous media accounts that implied that the LDS Church and the LDS culture may affect Utah's bankruptcy rate.

"This offered an opportunity to answer a question that hadn't been directly asked yet," Johnson said. "That's what my interest was."

In addition, the report found that while children significantly increased the chances for filing bankruptcy, in Utah the increase was less severe.

"Nationally there is about a 300 percent increased chance for filing bankruptcy if you have children than if you have no children," Wright said. "We found in Utah that there is only about 190 percent increased chance for people filing bankruptcy that have kids versus those that don't."

Johnson and Wright said their study does not definitively answer the question as to why Utah bankruptcy filings are higher than the national average. Nationally, people who file for bankruptcy do so in most cases for one of three reasons: divorce, job loss or catastrophic medical costs, according to ABI.

"It's very likely that it is a combination," Johnson said. "The contribution of our paper is hopefully we have eliminated one."

---

E-mail: danderton@desnews.com