Survey data

Abstract: American women tend to be less financially literate than men, which is consistent with a household division of labor in which men manage finances. However, women also tend to outlive their husbands, so they will eventually need to take over this task. Using a new survey of older couples, I find that women acquire financial literacy as they approach widowhood. At an estimated increase of 0.04 standard deviations per year approaching widowhood, 80 percent of women in the sample would catch up with their husbands prior to the expected onset of widowhood.

This project examines the impact of employer-provided financial education for newly hired workers on contributions to voluntary retirement savings plans. Using administrative data from five large employers, the researchers assess the impact of information and delivery methods on the choice to participate in the plans and the deferral amount selected. The researchers collected additional data from one employer-partner covering the two years before and after their automatic enrollment policy was implemented.

We present new experimental evidence on heterogeneity in the formation of inflation expectations and relate the variation to economic literacy and demographics. The experimental design allows us to investigate two channels through which expectations-formation may vary across individuals: (1) the choice of information and (2) the use of given information. Subjects who are more economically literate perform better along both dimensions—they choose more-relevant information and make better use of given information.

Innumerable studies over the past decade have shown that many people lack the basic knowledge of the Social Security system necessary for making informed decisions about when to retire and claim benefits, a decision which will impact their savings and their overall financial security. Accordingly, the Social Security Administration (SSA) seeks to educate and provide information to individuals to help them better understand their options for claiming benefits, how much they can receive, and the implications for personal retirement and financial planning.

Based on temporal construal theory, the length of time a person has before they reach retirement age will influence how they react to different types of messages. This theory predicts younger workers prefer more abstract communications compared to older workers who should prefer more concrete information because retirement is a distant goal rather than a proximal one. We also directly test how positive and negative message framing, goal timeframes, concreteness of the material presented and an individuals’ age influences an individual’s retirement savings intentions.

Abstract: Since the beginning of the recent recession, the employment-population ratio for high-school age youth (16-17 years old) has fallen by nearly a third, to its lowest level ever. However, this recession has exacerbated a longer-run downward trend that actually began in the 1990s and accelerated in the early 2000s. There is little research regarding why teen employment has fallen.

The Social Security Statement is sent annually to each individual over age 25. The Statement contains information regarding the Social Security program, the individual's past covered earnings and contributions, and an estimate of the individual's future retirement benefits. Given the complexity of the Social Security benefit formula, the Statement represents the best and perhaps only estimate of the benefits to which an individual may be entitled. Knowledge of benefits is important, as individuals must plan their own retirement saving around their Social Security benefits.

Individual savings are critical for retirement as government and employer-based provisions fade or become less secure. Rural communities are vulnerable given their higher proportion of elderly and more who rely on Social Security. Using a telephone survey of working-age residents in Michigan's rural Upper Peninsula, this research investigates factors associated with participation in tax-advantaged retirement plans that have largely replaced defined-benefit pension plans for earmarked retirement savings.

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of credit availability on small firm survivability over the period 2004 to 2008 for non-publicly traded small enterprises. Using data from the 2003 Survey of Small Business Finances, we develop failure prediction models for a sample of small firms that were confirmed to have been in business as of December 2003, with particular attention to the impact of credit constraints. We find that credit constrained firms were significantly more likely to go out of business than non constrained firms.