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Working Paper
Does it Pay to Send Multiple Pre-Paid Incentives? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment
To encourage survey participation and improve sample representativeness, the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) offers an unconditional pre-paid monetary incentive and separate post-paid incentive upon survey completion. We conducted a pre-registered between-subject randomized control experiment within the 2022 SCF, with at least 1,200 households per experimental group, to examine whether changing the pre-paid incentive structure affects survey outcomes. We assess the effects of: (1) altering the total dollar value of the pre-paid incentive (“incentive effect”), (2) giving two identical ...
Discussion Paper
Introducing New Detail on the Racial Composition of Families in the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances: Implications for the Distribution of U.S. Student Loan Debt
Student loan debt is the second-largest liability on U.S. household balance sheets, next after mortgages (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2025). While the availability of student loans can open educational opportunities that might not have otherwise existed, many borrowers struggle with repayment and may see their credit records damaged or wages garnished if they fall behind.