Andrea Hasler is the Deputy Academic Director and an Assistant Research Professor in Financial Literacy at the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC) at the George Washington University School of Business. With her research, which is dedicated to financial literacy and capability, she seeks to inform policy as well as develop and promote financial literacy programs. At GFLEC, she leads the team of researchers and develops analyses for educational and policy initiatives. Hasler has recently worked on projects focused on financial literacy levels of the young, women, entrepreneurs, investors, and minorities in the U.S. and around the world. She also has expertise in financial fragility among U.S. households.
Additionally, Hasler serves as a member of Canada’s Research Sub-Committee of the National Steering Committee on Financial Literacy. She holds a Ph.D. in Finance as well as an M.Sc. and B.A. in Business and Economics from the University of Basel. During her doctorate, she spent two years at the New York University Stern School of Business conducting research on household saving and financial decision making. Moreover, she has been a lecturer at the University of Basel for six years. Her professional experience includes the development of an online advanced studies course in financial market theory and work as an analyst conducting global equity market research.
The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) measures knowledge and understanding that enable sound financial decision making and effective management of personal finances among U.S. adults. The P-Fin Index is an annual survey developed by the TIAA Institute and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, in consultation with Greenwald & Associates. It is unique in its breadth of questions and its coverage of the topics that measure financial literacy. The index is based on responses to 28 questions across eight functional areas: earning, consuming, saving, investing, borrowing/managing debt, insuring, comprehending risk, and go-to information sources.
Learn more about the P-Fin Index
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Households tend to hold substantial amounts of non-financial assets in the form of consumer goods inventories that are unobserved by traditional measures of wealth, about $1,100 on average. Such holdings can eclipse total financial assets among households in the lowest income quintile. Households can obtain significant financial returns from shopping strategically and optimally managing these inventories. In addition, they choose to maintain liquid savings – household working capital – not just for precautionary motives but also to support this inventory management. We demonstrate that households with low levels of inventory earn high returns from investing in household working capital, well above 20%, though returns decline rapidly as inventory levels increase. We provide evidence from scanner and survey data that supports this conclusion. Inventory management of consumer goods provides one alternative to investments in risky financial markets at low levels of liquid wealth and can induce uneven spending behavior alongside smooth consumption.
Prof. Küng joined the economics department of USI as a Senior Assistant Professor in 2019. He earned a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012, both Bachelor and Masters degrees in economics and mathematics from the University of Fribourg in 2005, and a diploma in economics from the Swiss National Bank’s Study Center Gerzensee in 2006.
He was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University from 2012 to 2019 and served as a Research Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in 2019. He is a Research Affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London, a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in Boston, and a Faculty Member of the Swiss Finance Institute (SFI).
His research focuses on household economics and finance, public finance, and applied macroeconomics. His latest research investigates the riskiness of owning vs. renting housing, the consumption response of households to unconditional cash transfers, and how borrowing constraints affected the effectiveness of fiscal policies in stimulating the economy during the financial crisis. His research has been published in leading economics and management journals, such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Journal of Public Economics, or Management Science.
His work has also been cited and discussed in various media outlets such as The Economist, The Financial Times, The New York Times, Bloomberg, CBS News, Slate.com, CentralBanking.com, Vox, Die Neue Zürcher Zeitung, or Das Handelsblatt.
He teaches Household Economics and Finance at the bachelor as well as at the PhD level, which is joint listed with the SFI.
A Principal Economist in the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board, where she is currently part of the team that forecasts the economic effects of fiscal policy. Previously, she spent seven years on the team that produces the Survey of Consumer Finances. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland in 2013, and B.S. in Mathematics and Economics from The Ohio State University in 2007.
Dr. Olivia S. Mitchell is the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor; Professor of Insurance/Risk Management and Business Economics/Policy; Executive Director of the Pension Research Council; and Director of the Boettner Center on Pensions and Retirement Research; all at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Mitchell is also Research Associate at the NBER; Independent Director on the Allspring Mutual Fund Boards; Co-Investigator for the HRS at the University of Michigan; and Executive Board member for the Michigan Retirement Research Center. She also serves on the Advisory Committee of the Retirement and Saving Institute at the HEC Montreal and recently was Vice President of the American Economic Association. Professor Mitchell’s research focuses on pensions, risk management, financial literacy, household finance, and public finance. For additional information, please see: https://bepp.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/719/
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The George Washington University
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