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New Evidence on the Financial Knowledge and Characteristics of Investors
October 09, 2019Abstract: Increased individual responsibility for retirement saving and investing, together with the growing complexity of financial products, require that investors have financial knowledge and awareness. This report provides evidence of substantial differences across investor types. Workplace-only investors, whose exposure to… Read More »
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Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement
April 27, 2019Abstract : We analyze older individuals’ debt and financial vulnerability using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). In the HRS, we compare three groups of people age 56-61 in 1992, 2004,… Read More »
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The Changing Face of Debt and Financial Fragility at Older Ages
June 12, 2018Abstract: U.S. consumer credit and mortgage borrowing expanded rapidly prior to the 2008-9 financial crisis, allowing relatively unsophisticated consumers to decide how much they could afford to borrow. As a consequence, Americans today are more likely to enter retirement in debt… Read More »
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Optimal Financial Knowledge and Wealth Inequality
December 01, 2015Abstract: We show that financial knowledge is a key determinant of wealth inequality in a stochastic lifecycle model with endogenous financial knowledge accumulation, where financial knowledge enables individuals to better allocate lifetime resources in a world of uncertainty and imperfect… Read More »