Richard V. Burkhauser joined PAM in 1998. In 2012 he began a joint appointment as a Professorial Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (University of Melbourne). He spends January through June at the University of Melbourne and July through December at Cornell University. His professional career has focused on how public policies affect the economic behavior and well-being of vulnerable populations, e.g., older persons, people with disabilities, low-skilled workers. His research focuses on how public policies affect the economic behavior and well-being of vulnerable populations, e.g., older persons, people with disabilities, and low-income households. He has published widely on these topics in journals of demography, economics, gerontology, as well as public policy.
Lieutenant Colonel William Skimmyhorn is an Assistant Professor of Economics and the Deputy Director of the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis. He earned a B.S. in Economics at West Point in 1997, and M.A. in International Policy Studies and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford in 2006 and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2012. Prior to his current position he has served in a variety of command and staff positions in the U.S., Korea, Bosnia, Italy, and Afghanistan. His primary research interests are household finance, human capital development, behavioral economics, and the economics of national security.
This research estimates the effects of financial education on a variety of economic outcomes using a large natural experiment within the U.S. Army. I find that Personal Financial Management Course (PFMC) attendance and enrollment assistance doubles retirement savings, with significant effects throughout the contribution distribution that persist through at least two years. The course has smaller but suggestive effects on credit market outcomes including combined account balances and aggregate monthly credit payments in the first year after soldiers finish their initial job training. The PFMC has no significant effects on military labor market outcomes including measures of performance, productivity and reenlistment early in their service. Overall, the results suggest that financial education coupled with assistance and advice can improve financial outcomes in a number of areas.
Professor Choi’s research spans behavioral finance, behavioral economics, household finance, capital markets, health economics, and sociology. His work on default options has led to changes in 401(k) plan design at many U.S. corporations and has influenced pension legislation in the United States and abroad. In other papers, he has investigated topics such as the influence of racial, gender, and religious identity on economic preferences, investor ignorance of mutual fund fees, the effect of deadlines and peer information on savings choices, how retail investor sentiment in China affects stock returns, and the use of subtle planning prompts to increase vaccination rates.
Professor Choi is a recipient of the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for outstanding scholarly writing on lifelong financial security. He is a member of the FINRA Investor Issues Committee and a TIAA-CREF Institute Fellow.
We present evidence from field experiments that savings choices are significantly affected by numerical cues in the environment, even when these cues are at best minimally informative. We randomized the one- or two-sentence savings cues present in emails to employees about their 401(k) savings plan. High savings cues increased 401(k) contribution rates by up to 2.9% of income in a pay period, and low savings cues decreased 401(k) contribution rates by up to 1.4% of income in a pay period. Cues affected 401(k) contribution rates for up to a year after the email.
Julie Agnew is an Associate Professor of Finance and Economics and holds the John N. Dalton Term Chair at the College of William and Mary’s Mason School of Business. She is a TIAA-CREF Institute Fellow, a former elected member of the Defined Contribution Plans Advisory Committee (DCPAC) for the Virginia Retirement System, and a Research Associate for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. From 2009-2011, she was the Co-Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Behavioral Finance Research. Her research and consulting activities focus on behavioral finance and its relationship to financial decisions made by individuals in their retirement plans. She has presented her research at several national and international conferences, testified as an invited expert witness in front of the Senate’s Committee on Health Education, Labor and Pensions and published in journals that include the American Economic Review, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance and the Journal of Behavioral Finance. Additionally, she has won several nationally competitive research grants. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she worked as an Analyst in investment banking for Salomon Brothers in New York City and as an Equity Research Associate for Vector Securities International in Chicago. A former Fulbright Scholar to Singapore, she co-authored a book examining strategic business opportunities in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Dr. Agnew earned a B.A. degree in Economics (High Honors) and a minor in Mathematics from the College of William and Mary. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received a Ph.D. in Finance from Boston College in 2001. In 2012, she was a Senior Visiting Fellow working with Centre for Pensions and Superannuation at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
Using an online incentivized discrete choice experiment, we study how well individuals judge financial advice and whether factors other than advice quality influence their evaluations. We find evidence that some individuals rely on extraneous signals to judge advice quality and observe some persistency in adviser choice over time. Our results also explain how some advisers can maintain trustworthy reputations despite giving bad advice. Finally, we explore whether individuals learn throughout the experiment. Our findings have several public policy implications that are discussed in the conclusion.
Anna Paulson is a vice president and director of financial research in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Previously, she served as vice president in the financial markets group.Prior to her appointment in 2009 to the financial markets group, she was a senior financial economist in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Paulson’s research focuses on how households cope with risk and incomplete financial markets. Her current research includes studies of the relationship between institutions and financial development and the dynamics of entrepreneurship.Paulson’s research has been published in scholarly journals, including the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Journal of Corporate Finance. Before joining the Fed in November 2001, Paulson was an assistant professor in the finance department at the Kellogg School of Management. She received a B.A. from Carleton College and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.
Distinguished Financial Literacy Speaker
Senior Vice President, FINRA Office of Investor Education
President, FINRA Investor Education Foundation
Gerri Walsh is Senior Vice President of Investor Education at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In this capacity, she is responsible for the development and operations of FINRA’s investor education program. She is also President of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, where she manages the Foundation’s grant making and programmatic efforts to educate and protect investors. Her work focuses especially on traditionally underinvested groups of Americans, including young adults, women, Native Americans and members of U.S. military. She joined FINRA in May 2006.
From February 2002 to April 2006, Ms. Walsh served as Deputy Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Education and Assistance (OIEA). In that capacity, she managed the agency’s investor education program, oversaw the handling of investor complaints and questions, and advised senior agency staff on policy matters relating to investor protection. She previously worked for four years as the Special Counsel to the Director of OIEA and three years as a senior attorney in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement where she investigated and prosecuted violators of the federal securities laws. During her tenure at the SEC, Ms. Walsh received the 2004 SEC Law & Policy Award in connection with focus group initiatives for the agency’s proposed point of sale disclosure rules, the Department of Agriculture’s 2002 Honor Award of Excellence for participating on an inter-agency team that developed financial literacy programs, and the SEC’s 2001 Productivity Improvement Award as part of the team that overhauled and redesigned the agency’s Web site.
Prior to joining the SEC in 1994, Ms. Walsh was an associate with Hogan & Hartson, a Washington, D.C. law firm. She received her J.D. from N.Y.U. School of Law in 1989 and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Amherst College in 1985. She is a member of the New York and District of Columbia bars. She is on the Board of Gifts for the Homeless, Inc. (a non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to clothing to the homeless in the greater D.C. area) and she also serves as Vice President for New Clothing Purchases
George Washington University School of Business
Duquès Hall, Room 651
George Washington University School of Business
Duquès Hall, Room 651
George Washington University School of Business
Duquès Hall, Room 651
George Washington University School of Business
Duquès Hall, Room 651
George Washington University School of Business
Duquès Hall, Room 651
George Washington University School of Business
Duquès Hall, Room 651