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Working Paper
A rolling tide: changes in the distribution of wealth in the U.S., 1989-2001
Over the period from 1989 to 2001, wealth in real terms grew broadly across U.S. families. Characterizing distributional changes is much more complex, and much more dependent on the specific questions asked. For example, there is evidence both from Forbes data on the 400 wealthiest Americans and from the SCF, which explicitly excludes families in the Forbes list, that wealth grew relatively strongly at the very top of the distribution. At the same time, the share of total household wealth held by the Forbes group rose. However, while the point estimate of the share of total wealth held by the ...
Working Paper
Small Businesses and Small Business Finance during the Financial Crisis and the Great Recession: New Evidence From the Survey of Consumer Finances
We use the Federal Reserve's 2007, 2009 re-interview of 2007 respondents, and 2010 Surveys of Consumer Finances (SCFs) to examine the experiences of small businesses owned and actively managed by households during these turbulent years. This is the first paper to use these SCFs to study small businesses even though the surveys contain extensive data on a broad cross-section of firms and their owners. We find that the vast majority of small businesses were severely affected by the financial crisis and the Great Recession, including facing tight credit constraints. We document numerous and ...
Working Paper
Beyond the Streetlight: Economic Measurement in the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve
This paper was written for the academic conference held in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Division of Research and Statistics (R&S) of the Federal Reserve Board. The work of the Federal Reserve turns strongly on empirical efforts to understand the structure and state of the economy, and R&S can be thought of as operating a large factory for discovering and developing data and analytical methods to provide evidence relevant to the mission of the Board. This paper, as signaled by its title, illustrates how the measurement research component of the R&S factory often looks far beyond ...
Journal Article
Changes in U.S. family finances from 2007 to 2010: evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances
The Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances for 2010 provides insights into changes in family income and net worth since the 2007 survey. The survey shows that, over the 2007?10 period, the median value of real (inflation-adjusted) family income before taxes fell 7.7 percent, while mean income fell more sharply, an 11.1 percent decline. Both median and mean net worth decreased even more dramatically than income over this period, though the relative movements in the median and the mean are reversed; the median fell 38.8 percent, and the mean fell 14.7 percent. This article reviews ...
Journal Article
Recent changes in U.S. family finances: evidence from the 2001 and 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances
Reviews changes in the income and wealth of U.S. families between 2001 and 2004. The discussion draws on data from the Federal Reserve Board's triennial Survey of Consumer Finances for those years and also uses evidence from earlier years of the survey to place the 2001-04 changes in a broader context.
Working Paper
Saving and financial planning: some findings from a focus group
This paper summarizes the results of a focus group on saving and financial planning. The group consisted of eight individuals with relatively high income and wealth. The savings behavior of such people is of interest partly due to their large contribution to total personal saving. The participants expressed concerns about how their circumstances will change as they age, and about uncertainties in income and health. While these concerns are consistent with theories emphasizing life-cycle and precautionary motives, the idea that saving involves self-control was also mentioned repeatedly.
Working Paper
Who uses electronic banking?
This study uses the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances to examine households' use of technologies, including electronic means, to carry out transactions at a financial institution and to gain information for making saving and borrowing decisions. Household use of various technologies is correlated with household income, financial assets, age, and years of education. Results suggest that relatively new electronic technologies are used by relatively few households, and that household use of electronic sources of information for financial decisionmaking is barely off the ground.
Working Paper
Demographics and household savings