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Journal Article
Choosing a Credit Counseling Agency
Consumers can go online to get advice about choosing the right agency.
Working Paper
Savings Versus Debt: The Effects of Survey Question Order on Consumers’ Reported Financial Priorities
Survey after survey indicates that building savings and reducing debt are among the top financial goals for many Americans. However, because of limited resources and inherent trade-offs, achieving these two goals can be challenging and often requires prioritizing one goal over the other. We conduct two survey experiments with national samples of U.S. adults to understand how individuals balance saving and paying off debt, while taking into account survey context and question effects that might influence self-reports of behaviors. Both studies find a significant question order effect, in which ...
Working Paper
New Evidence on an Old Unanswered Question : Why Some Borrowers Purchase Credit Insurance and Other Debt Protection and Some Do Not
Credit related insurance and other debt protection are products sold in conjunction with credit that extinguish a consumer?s debt or suspends its periodic payments if events like death, disability, or involuntary unemployment occur. High penetration rates observed in the 1950s and 1960s raised concerns about coercion in the sale of credit insurance. This study presents evidence on credit insurance purchase and debt protection decisions from a new survey. The findings provide little evidence of widespread or systematic coercion in purchases. Instead, findings suggest that risk aversion and ...
Journal Article
Inaugural Money Week Houston campaign promotes financial education across city
Residents from every walk of life focused on financial education April 19-25 during the inaugural Money Week Houston campaign. In a citywide effort, more than 150 free public events were held at libraries, churches, schools and community centers throughout Greater Houston, offering consumers the opportunity to increase their financial literacy and learn to better manage their personal finances. Workshops, seminars and other activities targeted diverse audiences, including women, seniors, youths and workers without bank accounts.
Journal Article
New Mexico Encourages Citizens to Save
Low-income residents in New Mexico now have more incentive than ever to save for a home, an education or their own business. In the 2006 legislative session, the state provided $1.5 million to fund the Individual Development Account Act that passed in 2003.
Journal Article
En español, por favor: 'Building Wealth' Now Available in Spanish
To empower Spanish speakers with the information they need to save and create wealth, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has translated into Spanish its publication Building Wealth: A Beginner's Guide to Securing Your Financial Future.
Journal Article
New Scrutiny for Consumer Credit Counseling Industry
Government actions, combined with oversight and standardization from industry organizations, benefit consumers by enabling them to more easily identify agencies that work in their best interest and are certified to provide them with quality financial education.
Working Paper
Is It Still an Econ Course? The Effect of a Standardized Personal Finance Test on the Learning of Economics
We study the implications of mixing economics and personal finance standardsin a high school course. Using administrative, survey, and testing data on collegestudents, we find evidence that personal finance instruction crowds out economicsinstruction. We find that students who received more instruction in economics scorealmost 5% higher on an economics test. Furthermore, we estimate the effect of beingassigned a certification test in personal finance as a part of this course. The effect ofthe certification test is not uniform across students. The test reduces the economicsscores of students ...
Journal Article
Credit Counseling: In Person, By Phone or Online
A recent study finds that telephone and face-to-face counseling can be equally effective and appear to generate equivalent outcomes for consumers' creditworthiness two years later. The increase in telephone and online counseling may encourage consumers to seek earlier assistance for their credit and debt problems.
Newsletter
What Is the Best Strategy for Paying Off Credit Card Debt?
Most of us use credit cards, and many of us have credit card debt. Economists and personal finance gurus disagree on the best strategies for paying off that debt across multiple credit cards. Check out our February 2023 issue of Page One Economics®: Focus on Finance to see why.