Search Results
Journal Article
Eleventh District Nonprofits Comment on Clients' Credit Education Needs
In a recent Community Outlook Survey by the Dallas Fed's Community Development Office, several nonprofit service providers observed that credit scores were a main factor affecting low-to moderate-income clients' access to credit.
Working Paper
State Mandated Financial Education and the Credit Behavior of Young Adults
In the U.S., a number of states have mandated personal finance classes in public school curricula to address perceived deficiencies in financial decision-making competency. Despite the growth of financial and economic education provided in public schools, little is known about the effect of these programs on the credit behaviors of young adults. Using a panel of credit report data, we examine young adults in three states where personal financial education mandates were implemented in 2007: Georgia, Idaho, and Texas. We compare the credit scores and delinquency rates of young adults in each of ...
Discussion Paper
Driving positive behavior change through education and motivation: summary of a PayPerks workshop
Start-up firm PayPerks has developed a financial capability and rewards platform that combines online education with sweepstakes-based incentives. PayPerks? initial emphasis has been on improving the understanding and use of prepaid cards among individuals with little prior experience using payment cards. Participants can earn points in a variety of ways, including taking short, self-directed tutorials on prepaid card use. Every month, those points become chances to win cash prizes in sweepstakes drawings. PayPerks co-founders facilitated a Payment Cards Center workshop where they ...
Journal Article
Get Checking Launches in Houston
Access to mainstream financial services is on the horizon for unbanked and underbanked consumers in Houston through Get Checking(TM), a national initiative sponsored by eFunds Corp. and the University of Wisconsin Extension.
Report
Inflation expectations and behavior: Do survey respondents act on their beliefs?
We compare the inflation expectations reported by consumers in a survey with their behavior in a financially incentivized investment experiment designed such that future inflation affects payoffs. The inflation expectations survey is found to be informative in the sense that the beliefs reported by the respondents are correlated with their choices in the experiment. Furthermore, most respondents appear to act on their inflation expectations showing patterns consistent (both in direction and magnitude) with expected utility theory. Respondents whose behavior cannot be rationalized tend to be ...
Journal Article
Notes: The money circle and Jumpstart your money
Briefing
Rationalizing financial literacy policy
It is hard to argue against the need for greater financial literacy. But how can households learn to make better decisions and to what extent can public policy help?
Journal Article
Financial literacy education: a potential tool for reducing predatory lending?
A review of studies on the effectiveness of financial literacy training and whether such training results in responsible financial decision making by consumers.
Working Paper
Paying Too Much? Price Dispersion in the U.S. Mortgage Market
We document wide dispersion in the mortgage rates that households pay on identical loans, and show that borrowers' financial sophistication is an important determinant of the rates obtained. We estimate a gap between the 10th and 90th percentile mortgage rate that borrowers with the same characteristics obtain for identical loans, in the same market, on the same day, of 54 basis points|equivalent to about $6,500 in upfront costs (points) for the average loan. Time-invariant lender attributes explain little of this rate dispersion, and considerable dispersion remains even within loan officer. ...