MyMoney Resources - Researcher

This descriptive analysis examines the importance of personal financing sources, especially mortgages secured by residential property, to small businesses from 1998 through 2007. About 80 percent of the total debt owned by small business-owning house-holds is held in mortgages and installment loans. The likelihood of holding a residential mortgage increased from 64.7 percent in 1998 to over 73 percent in 2007, and the share of total debt held in residential mortgages increased from 67.3 percent in 1998 to 70.6 percent in 2007 for small business-owning households. After controlling for owner characteristics, small business-owning households did not hold a larger share of total debt in residen-tial mortgages than other households from 1998 through 2007. However, small business-owning households did hold a larger share of total debt in other loans secured by residential property and line of credit loans secured by residential property than other households. These loans comprise less than 18 percent of the value of total debt held by small business-owning households in 2007, suggesting that while financial intermingling does occur, it repre-sents a relatively small share of total debt.

This report addresses two sets of research questions related to Refund anticipation loans (RALs) and refund atnticipation checks (RACs) First, the authors ask who obtains them and who does not and what demographic, economic, and geographic factors are associated with the use of these products. The authors provide descriptive breakdowns of many individual and geographical characteristics that are linked with use of RALs/RACs, and then conduct quantitative analysis of IRS-provided data on millions of tax filers who received a refund in tax year 2008. A second set of qualitative research questions examines why these products exist, using interviews with industry stakeholders. The report finds that among the most important characteristics influencing RAL/RAC use were lower income, young adulthood, single head-of-household filing status, receipt of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and use of a paid preparer. The authors also find that RALs and RACs are highly spatially concentrated and that living in the poorest communities is associated with dramatic increases in use of these products, even after controlling for a taxpayer’s income and filing status. There are also unique differences in the use of RALs versus RACs according to such variables as military status. Finally,individuals with any interest and dividend income used RALs and RACs to a much smaller degree than did those with otherwise similar characteristics. RALs and RACs are used by one in seven tax filers—and more than one in six filers who receive refunds. Taxpayers are able to receive their refunds more quickly than a mailed check by using RALs, often in one to three days. RACs are no quicker than other IRS direct deposit returns, but for those who lack a bank account, and/or would receive a paper check, they may speed up receipt of refund by up to six weeks. Both RALs and RACs enable payment of tax preparation fees out of the expected refund. Most RAL and RAC recipients use these products to pay for pressing financial obligations, both expected and unexpected, and for their tax preparation. RAL/RAC users, particularly those claiming the EITC, are driven to paid preparers by the complexity of filing a tax return. Stakeholders from the RAL/RAC industry do not feel that consumers use these products because they fail to understand that they are loans or because they are not aware of the fees involved. Consumer advocates disagree, claiming that use is partly driven by aggressive, targeted marketing.

This literature review provides an overview of research on the following small-dollar credit products: auto title loans, pawnshops, payday lending, refund anticipation loans (RALs) and checks (RACs), and rent-to-own (RTO). This review includes recently published research. It is not intended as an exhaustive treatment of these topics, but is designed to highlight key findings relevant for additional research.

In January 2009, the FDIC sponsored a special supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) to collect data to determine the number of U.S. households that lack a deposit account with a financial institution (checking or savings account) and reasons for not having/using a bank account. In addition, the survey identifies for all households the extent to which they utilize alternative financial services such as non-bank money orders, non-bank check-cashing services, payday loans, rent-to-own agreements, pawn shops, tax fund anticipation loans, and either pre-paid or payroll debit cards. Coupled with the rich demographic data available through the CPS, this survey presents a wealth of previously unavailable data on extent to which consumers utilize depository vs. non-bank financial services providers at the national, state and large metropolitan statistical area (MSA) levels. The CPS is a monthly survey of about 54,000 households representative of the U.S. civilian, non-institutionalized population.

Abstract: This report examines the utilization of a state earned income credit by current and former welfare recipients using two measures: receipt among all current and former welfare recipients and among only those eligible for the credit. Both measures may be useful, depending upon which groups policymakers hope to target. The authors further characterize utilization by examining how receipt varies with earnings and by demographic group, the length of time current and former welfare households receive the state earned income credit, and whether recipient households respond to changes in the parameters of state earned income credit programs.

Abstract: Only about one-fifth of respondents in the Reuters/University of Michigan survey report that the 2008 tax rebates led them to mostly increase spending, while over half said it would lead them to mostly pay off debt. Of those in the mostly-spend category, the response was swift, with over 80 percent reporting increasing their spending within three months of receiving their rebate. Older households, households with higher wealth and higher income, and those expecting future income growth were generally more likely to spend the rebates. A review of other surveys confirms the general pattern of results and suggests that small changes in survey design do not have a major effect on the distribution of responses. The distribution of survey answers corresponds to an aggregate MPC after one year of about one-third. The paper combines this survey-based estimate of the MPC and the survey-based estimate of the timing of spending to show that the rebates help explain the aggregate movements in saving, spending, and debt in 2008. Because the rebate was large and distributed over a short period, we estimate that it had a non-trivial effect on total spending in the second and third quarters of 2008. Nonetheless, the results imply that the rebates provided only a modest stimulus to spending per dollar of rebate.

Abstract: Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we document that, controlling for observable characteristics, household investors' likelihood of entering the stock market within the next five years is about 30 percent higher if their parents or children had entered the stock market during the previous five years. Because even family members who live far away from each other tend to communicate frequently, despite the fact that interactions among people living close geographically have declined with the rise of alternative social channels, we argue that these findings highlight the significance of information sharing regarding household financial decisions. In addition, focusing on the sequential patterns of stock market entry, we explicitly take into account the time needed for information to be shared and disseminated among family members. Our finding that one member's entry positively influences future entries of other family members at distinct stages of the life cycle allows us to largely rule out the hypothesis that the observed correlations in stock market entries are primarily caused by common preferences shared by family members. Furthermore, because we do not find similar sequential patterns in stock market exits, our results do not support the hypothesis of herding behavior.

This paper describes an equilibrium life-cycle model of housing where nonconvex adjustment costs lead households to adjust their housing choice infrequently and by large amounts when they do so. In the cross-sectional dimension, the model matches the wealth distribution; the age profiles of consumption, homeownership, and mortgage debt; and data on the frequency of housing adjustment. In the time-series dimension, the model accounts for the procyclicality and volatility of housing investment, and for the procyclical behavior of household debt. The authors use a calibrated version of their model to ask the following question: what are the consequences for aggregate volatility of an increase in household income and a decrease in downpayment requirements? They distinguish between an early period, the 1950s though the 1970s, when household income risk was relatively small and loan-to-value ratios were low, and a late period, the 1980s through today, with high household income risk and high loan-to-value ratios. In the early period, precautionary saving is small, wealth-poor people are close to their maximum borrowing limit, and housing investment, homeownership, and household debt closely track aggregate productivity. In the late period, precautionary saving is larger, wealth-poor people borrow less than the maximum and become more cautious in response to aggregate shocks. As a consequence, the correlation between debt and economic activity on the one hand, and the sensitivity of housing investment to aggregate shocks on the other, are lower, as found in the data. Quantitatively, this model can explain: (1) 45 percent of the reduction in the volatility of household investment; (2) the decline in the correlation between household debt and economic activity; and (3) about 10 percent of the reduction in the volatility of GDP.

Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this paper considers the mechanism by which changing house values impact U.S. household spending. The results suggest that house values affect consumption by serving as collateral for households to borrow against to smooth their spending. The results show that the consumption of households who need to borrow against their home equity increases by roughly 11 cents per $1.00 increase in their housing wealth. Changing house values, however, have little effect on the expenditures of households who do not need to borrow to finance their consumption. Based on these results, the paper further finds that declining housing wealth has a relatively small implied negative impact on aggregate consumption expenditures

The case is often made that financial education leads to improved financial decisions. In this paper, we begin by assessing the need for financial education by reviewing national trends in savings, debt, and retirement funding as well as by reviewing the literature linking personal financial behavior and participation in financial education programs. We then describe the conceptual underpinnings of a link between improved personal financial behavior and work outcomes. Finally, we evaluate the efficacy of a specific workplace financial education program utilizing surveys and interviews with employees and employers. Our findings suggest that for the participants in this specific program, financial education did improve personal financial outcomes, and we found some evidence of improvements in work outcomes. Examples of improved work outcomes include decreased requests for 401k loans and pay advances; increased use of flexible spending accounts; increased 401k participation and contributions; and increased satisfaction with employee financial situations, and subsequently, decreased level of financial stress. Finally, in an appendix, we utilize the results of the survey data to study the relationship between financial knowledge and financial behavior.