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Discussion Paper
Delivery of financial literacy programs
A critical challenge faced by educators, community leaders and policy makers is to bring financial literacy and consumer education effectively to their constituencies. Based on the qualitative evidence gleaned from focus groups, we take a pragmatic approach in proposing ways to deliver financial literacy programs to adults. This article makes several suggestions for implementing financial literacy programs, from outlining important financial literacy and consumer education topics to discussing the logistics of using various method of outreach activities.
Journal Article
Strategies for improving economic mobility of workers: a conference report
The issue of economic opportunity for the disadvantaged has grown in importance. We?ve witnessed healthy job creation rates in recent years, and by almost all measures American workers, overall, have gained economic ground. Yet, at the same time, it?s also well known that inequality in economic outcomes has increased. Those at the bottom of the income distribution have not grown as fast as those on the top, and may even be stagnating. These trends imply that segments of the labor force have relatively more limited chances for economic mobility.
Conference Paper
Credit availability in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Hmong community
Journal Article
Competitiveness of Ethnic Minority Neighborhoods in Metropolitan Areas in the Seventh District
This article by senior business economist Maude Toussaint-Comeau explores employment change in ethnic minority neighborhoods in the Seventh District in comparison to job growth within their regions before and after the Great Recession. Among the high-level findings is that ethnic neighborhoods in economically growing metro areas tend to have high job growth, underscoring the value of policies that promote economic inclusion
Newsletter
Self-employed immigrants: an analysis of recent data
This article identifies the factors that influence the self- employment decision for U.S. immigrants, including human capital, years in the U.S., geographic concentration, and labor market characteristics.
Journal Article
Determinants of Housing Values and Variations in Home Prices Across Neighborhoods in Cook County
From 2007 to 2009, the U.S. underwent one of the worst recessions in its history, a recession triggered by an unprecedented, international financial crisis that resulted from institutional portfolio concentration in securities backed by home mortgages, and the collapse of that securities market. The period saw a wave of defaults and foreclosures that spared almost no communities in metropolitan areas throughout the country (Bajaj and Story, 2008). Loan defaults and foreclosures, which had tended to be concentrated in lower-income and minority neighborhoods, spread to new and diverse ...
Working Paper
The importance of check-cashing businesses to the unbanked: racial/ethnic differences
The roughly 9.5 percent of all U.S. families that are without some type of transaction account (unbanked) are disproportionately represented by minorities. The unbanked often must rely on alternative ways to carry out basic financial transactions such as cashing payroll checks and paying bills. This study analyzes unique survey data and finds that a consumer's decision to patronize check-cashing businesses is jointly made with the decision to be unbanked. For the unbanked, these businesses are an important source for financial services. Attributes that contribute to these decisions, however, ...
Journal Article
An Analysis of SBA Loans in Lower-income and Black neighborhoods in Detroit and Michigan
In this article, we analyze the extent to which the Small Business Administration (SBA) 7(a) loan guarantee program helps facilitate flows of credit to small businesses in the city of Detroit, and to black and low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in Michigan. In an environment of financial austerity and constrained small business credit, federal government programs like those administered by the SBA can facilitate lending to businesses. The SBA administers several programs designed to encourage lenders to provide loans to small businesses that might not otherwise obtain financing on ...
Working Paper
The impact of Mexican immigrants on U.S. wage structure
Previous study by Card and Lewis (2005) has found (puzzling) that inflows of Mexican immigrants into ?new? metropolitan areas have had no effect on the relative wages of very low-skill (high school dropouts). Rather, Mexican workers do affect relative wages for high school graduates. Whereas Card and Lewis? study uses variations across geographies, this paper considers variations across occupations. Recognizing that Mexican immigrants are highly occupationally clustered (disproportionately work in distinctive ?very low wage? occupations), we use this fact to motivate the empirical approach to ...
Childcare Use and Expenses Among Families of Different Income Levels
As part of the Chicago Fed’s Spotlight on Childcare and the Labor Market, a targeted effort to understand how access to childcare can affect employment and the economy, we use data from a national survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau—the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)—to examine the childcare arrangements for young children (those under five years old) while their mothers were at work, in school, or otherwise not available and how much families paid for these arrangements in the recent past. We focus on the arrangements used and amounts paid by families with low ...