NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A recent study says business bankruptcy rates are up to nine times higher than the government claims and also asserts that the new bankruptcy law may further hinder entrepreneurship, a newspaper said Wednesday.

Researchers, including a Harvard bankruptcy expert, said that 19.5 percent of filings are at least partially business-related, much higher than the 2.3 percent rate given by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, USA Today reported.

The AOC had not seen the study and declined comment, a spokesman told the newspaper.

"Rumors of the death of business bankruptcies have been greatly exaggerated," the newspaper quoted the study, entitled "The Myth of the Disappearing Business."

The study says the new law doesn't reflect the true impact of small-business failures, citing the rising use of software that changed the way attorneys complete AOC forms, USA Today said.

The widely-used software automatically assumes that debtors, including self-employed workers, are consumers unless otherwise indicated, the report said.

The report comes two months after President George W. Bush signed a bill giving federal bankruptcy law one its largest overhauls in decades, the newspaper said, adding that researchers fear the reform may keep business owners from recovering from failure.

For example, the new law requires credit counseling to encourage debtors to stick to a budget, said USA Today; but that makes little sense for business debtors who seek court relief because they lack capital, not because of reckless spending.

"Many of these people are sophisticated business people for whom markets have reversed... They don't need to know how to balance a checkbook," Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren told the newspaper.

The study, which was financed by the non-partisan, entrepreneur-focused non-profit Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, will be published in the California Law Review, the newspaper said.