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Report
Defining Households That Are Underserved in Digital Payment Services
US households that lack digital means of making and receiving payments cannot participate fully in an increasingly digitized economy. Assessing the scope of this problem and addressing it requires a definition of households that are underserved in digital payments. Traditional definitions of households underserved in the banking system—those that are unbanked and those that are underbanked—do not account for the ownership of nonbank transaction accounts that can be used to make and receive digital payments. In this paper, we define households underserved in digital payments by considering ...
Working Paper
Defining Households That Are Underserved in Digital Payment Services
US households that lack digital means of making and receiving payments cannot participate fully in an increasingly digitized economy. Assessing the scope of this problem and addressing it requires a definition of households that are underserved in digital payments. Traditional definitions of households underserved in the banking system—those that are unbanked and those that are underbanked—do not account for the ownership of nonbank transaction accounts that can be used to make and receive digital payments. In this paper, we define households underserved in digital payments by considering ...
Working Paper
Financial Well-being and Inclusion of Justice Involved Populations: Evidence from the SHED
This study examines financial challenges faced by justice-involved individuals using 2023-2024 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking data. Individuals with justice system contact experience substantially worse financial outcomes than those without criminal records, with disparities widening by severity of involvement. Compared to individuals with no prior records, those arrested but not convicted are 4 percentage points less likely to report doing at least okay financially, while formerly convicted as well as incarcerated adults are 15 percentage points less likely. Formerly ...
Working Paper
Revisiting the Effect of Education on Later Life Health
We provide new evidence on the effect of education on later life health. Using variation in state compulsory schooling laws, we examine education's effect on a range of outcomes encompassing physical health, decision-making, and life expectancy. We employ under-utilized Health and Retirement Study data linked to restricted geographic identifiers, allowing us to match individuals more accurately to compulsory schooling laws. While positively related to educational attainment, compulsory schooling laws have no significant effect on later life health outcomes. Our results suggest that increased ...
Discussion Paper
Question design and the gender gap in financial literacy
Many surveys have measured people's financial literacy with a standard set of questions covering interest, inflation, and investment diversification. Results from these surveys have consistently shown that women are less likely than men to answer the financial literacy questions correctly – the so-called financial literacy gender gap.
Discussion Paper
“The Only Way I Could Afford It”: Who Uses BNPL and Why
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a fast-growing credit product that allows consumers to split payments over time. BNPL gained popularity as a new alternative credit product for online retail purchases over the past decade and has become available for in-person purchases as well as post-purchase credit card installment payment plans.
Working Paper
Defining Households That Are Underserved in Digital Payment Services
U.S. households that lack digital means of making and receiving payments cannot participate fully in an increasingly digitized economy. Assessing the scope of this problem and addressing it requires a definition of households that are underserved in digital payments. Traditional definitions of households underserved in the banking system—those that are unbanked and those that are underbanked—are not suitable because they do not account for the ownership of nonbank transaction accounts that can be used to make and receive digital payments. In this paper, we define households underserved in ...
Report
Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024
Results from the 2024 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), which was fielded in October, indicate that people’s financial well-being was similar to the previous two years but below the high reached in 2021. Concerns about prices persisted, and labor market conditions remained solid. Inflation and prices continued to be the top financial concern. A majority of adults also said that changes in the prices they paid over the prior year had made their finances worse, but the share saying so declined from 2023. In response to higher prices, most people reported taking actions ...
Report
Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2023
Results from the 2023 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) indicate that people’s overall financial well-being was nearly unchanged from the previous year but below the high reached in 2021. Despite the moderating pace of inflation, many adults continued to indicate that higher prices were a challenge in managing their finances. The survey, which was fielded in October 2023, showed similar patterns for other measures of financial resiliency as well. Both the share of adults who spent less than their income in the month before the survey and the share who would pay for an ...
Discussion Paper
Childcare Disruptions and Mothers’ Availability to Work during the Pandemic: Evidence from the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking
The first article finds that the pandemic disrupted childcare or in-person schooling for nearly 70 percent of parents, with 25 percent of mothers reporting that they did not work or worked less as a result.