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Working Paper
The Role of Property Assessment Oversight in School Finance Inequality
This paper explores an under-studied channel for school finance inequality: property assessment. School districts have historically relied on local tax revenues (typically property taxes) to fund schools, which can generate disparities in funding across districts. Many states passed school finance reforms that give more state funding to poorer districts. These formulas typically discourage school districts from offsetting state funding by reducing local tax rates ("crowd out"). However, many reforms have not adequately addressed another source of inequality: property assessment accuracy and ...
Report
Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2019, Featuring Supplemental Data from April 2020
This report describes the responses to the 2019 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) as well as responses to a follow-up survey conducted in April 2020. The Federal Reserve Board has fielded this survey each fall since 2013 to understand the wide range of financial challenges and opportunities facing families in the United States.
Working Paper
Suitability of a County-Level Income Definition for Analysis of Lower-Income Communities
This paper examines the costs and benefits of using a straightforward county-level income definition in the classification and study of lower-income communities. A definition based on population-weighted distribution of county-level median household incomes does a good job of identifying the most economically disadvantaged communities across a wide range of indicators. We show robustness to the use of different thresholds, levels of geography, and cost-of-living adjustments.
Discussion Paper
Improving Housing Payment Projections during the COVID-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 caused widespread job loss, raising concerns about whether people can still cover their rent or mortgage expenses. Policymakers and researchers are working to understand the effects of the pandemic on housing payments and predict future payment rates.
Working Paper
Targeted Relief: Geography and Timing of Emergency Rental Assistance
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress established the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, which provided nearly $45 billion to prevent evictions and increase housing stability. We provide new evidence on the implementation of ERA by examining the fine-grained geographic distribution of ERA funds and the timing of ERA expenditures by state and local governments. Using administrative data on ERA transactions, we find that ERA sent more funds per renting household to census tracts with higher pre-pandemic eviction filing rates, higher poverty rates, higher shares of Black ...
Working Paper
The Canary in the Coal Decline: Appalachian Household Finance and the Transition from Fossil Fuels
We use individual-level credit data to study how recent declines in Appalachian coal mining affected household finances between 2011 and 2018. Using exogenous variation in electricity sector demand for coal, we find declines in coal demand decreased credit scores and increased financial distress within two years of coal shocks. These effects cannot be explained solely by job losses in coal mine worker households. Credit score declines and financial distress were largest among older individuals and people with lower-middle credit scores. Our results suggest the energy transition away from ...
Discussion Paper
The Hidden Costs of Disability
Disability can be devastating financially for households, as it can severely limit earnings potential (Meyer & Mok, 2019; Benito, Glassman, & Hiedemann, 2016; Jolly, 2013). The earnings penalty for households with disabilities is estimated to range from 15 to 70 percent of earnings, depending on the nature of the disability (Meyer & Mok, 2019). Households receiving disability insurance (either employer-based or via Social Security) receive payments based on their prior earnings to help account for this earnings penalty.