Striving to Save

Striving to Save
Author: Margaret Sherrard Sherraden
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2010-05-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0472021818

"Striving to Save will inform and inspire social policy with its breakthrough approach in understanding how low-income families make ends meet while striving to make a better life for themselves and their families. Scholarly work in savings, debt, household finance, and behavior economics will benefit from this pioneering study that provides real-life context for some of the most important issues of our day." ---Tom Shapiro, Brandeis University "The central contribution of the book is to use original qualitative research to provide readers with a nuanced understanding of the financial difficulties facing low-income households, their financial decision-making processes, and their paths to saving and building assets over time. The book provides an essential corrective to the unidimensional view of poor households as unable and unwilling to save." ---Michael Barr, University of Michigan In Striving to Save, Margaret Sherrard Sherraden and Amanda Moore McBride examine savings in eighty-four working families with low incomes, including fifty-nine families who participated in a groundbreaking program of matched savings and financial education. In-depth interviews with these families, along with savings and survey data, shed light on saving in low-income households. The book concludes with recommended public policy approaches for increasing savings in households that are striving to save. Margaret Sherrard Sherraden is Professor of Social Work at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. Amanda Moore McBride is Assistant Professor of Social Work at Washington University, St. Louis.

A Comparison of Two Savings Measures

A Comparison of Two Savings Measures
Author: Stuart J. Heckman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 65
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

Through the application of the institutional theory of saving behavior, a framework is established for understanding determinants of savings among low-income households. Multiple survey years from the Survey of Consumer Finances were used to investigate the research questions through the use of means testing and logistic regression. Two different savings measurements were used: a broad measure and a narrow measure.

A Fragile Balance

A Fragile Balance
Author: J. Collins
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2015-03-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1137482370

A Fragile Balance examines strategies to promote emergency savings, especially among underserved households. Each chapter is by an expert contributor and proposes an innovative financial product or service designed to bolster emergency savings among low-asset families. This collection also offers readers insights into the role of emergency savings and mechanisms to facilitate savings behaviors, and raises critical questions of the scale, institutional capacity, sustainability, accessibility, and effectiveness of existing programs.

Can the Poor Save?

Can the Poor Save?
Author: Mark Schreiner
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2011-12-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0202363112

Many policymakers argue that the best poverty policy not only provides cash to the poor for subsistence but also incentives and structures that encourage long-term social and economic improvement. As part of this, they make the case for Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), a new policy proposal designed to help the poor save and to build assets. This book explores IDAs to determine their effectiveness. IDAs are matched savings accounts targeted on low-income, low-wealth individuals. Savings in IDAs are used for home ownership, post-secondary education, small business development, and other purposes. Do IDAs work? If they do, for whom? And does how an IDA is designed determine savings outcomes? This volume is the first analysis of matched savings by the poor to use data from monthly bank statements. It comes at a critical time, as debate rages over the merits of individual social security accounts. IDAs also respond to policy that is becoming more asset based and less inclusive of the poor. The authors argue for the efficacy of IDAs to counter this tendency. They find that while savings outcomes vary among participants, no characteristics (such as low income or public assistance) preclude saving. They examine effects of IDA design (the match rate, savings targets, and the use of automatic transfer) on savings results and analyze factors that influence varying rates of saving and spending over time. They conclude that financial education and other support services, though costly, improve savings performance. To address the issue of cost they suggest a two-tier system of IDA design, one with broad access and simple services and the other with targeted access and intensive services. Can the Poor Save? offers a wealth of lessons to those interested in saving and asset accumulation among the poor. It not only breaks new ground in the scientific study of savings behavior, but also offers concrete, evidence-based recommendations to improve policies designed to encourage the poor to save and how to make such policies more inclusive.

No Slack

No Slack
Author: Michael S. Barr
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0815722338

The financial crisis exposed unsavory results of interactions between low- and moderate-income households and alternative and mainstream financial institutions: overleveraged incomes, high cost for financial services, and lack of access to useful financial products that can cushion against economic instability. It revealed a financial services system that is not well designed to serve these households, leaving them without financial slack. Pivotal analysis, focusing on metropolitan Detroit's low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, examines household decision making processes, behaviors, and attitudes toward a full range of financial transactions during the subprime lending boom. The author advocates helping families seek financial stability in three primary ways: enhancing individuals' financial capability, using technology to promote access to financial products and services that meet their needs, and establishing strong protections for consumers.

Individual and Institutional Factors Related to Low-Income Household Saving Behavior

Individual and Institutional Factors Related to Low-Income Household Saving Behavior
Author: Stuart Heckman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 7
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:

This research sought to further understanding of factors related to low-income household saving behavior. Saving behavior, defined as whether a household spent less than income, was analyzed by applying institutional theory, which proposes that households' institutional environment has a substantial effect on financial decisions. Two logistic regression models were used to test the effects of variables on saving behavior; the first logit was based on the life cycle hypothesis and the second added noneconomic individual factors (i.e., social networks, financial literacy, and psychological variables) and institutional factors (i.e., access, incentives, and facilitation). Institutional factors, including the number of institutions used, credit access, and having an employer sponsored retirement plan, had significant effects even after controlling for the effect of variables based on the life cycle model, suggesting that promoting institutional access and facilitation - especially through employer-provided plans - may encourage saving behavior among low-income households.

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 619
Release: 2019-09-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309483980

The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a well-functioning and prosperous society, yet America's future is not as secure as it could be because millions of American children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. A wealth of evidence suggests that a lack of adequate economic resources for families with children compromises these children's ability to grow and achieve adult success, hurting them and the broader society. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty reviews the research on linkages between child poverty and child well-being, and analyzes the poverty-reducing effects of major assistance programs directed at children and families. This report also provides policy and program recommendations for reducing the number of children living in poverty in the United States by half within 10 years.

Can the Poor Save?

Can the Poor Save?
Author: Michael Sherraden
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2017
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 9781315081816

"Many policymakers argue that the best poverty policy not only provides cash to the poor for subsistence but also incentives and structures that encourage long-term social and economic improvement. As part of this, they make the case for Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), a new policy proposal designed to help the poor save and to build assets. This book explores IDAs to determine their effectiveness. IDAs are matched savings accounts targeted on low-income, low-wealth individuals. Savings in IDAs are used for home ownership, post-secondary education, small business development, and other purposes. Do IDAs work? If they do, for whom? And does how an IDA is designed determine savings outcomes? This volume is the first analysis of matched savings by the poor to use data from monthly bank statements. It comes at a critical time, as debate rages over the merits of individual social security accounts. IDAs also respond to policy that is becoming more asset based and less inclusive of the poor. The authors argue for the efficacy of IDAs to counter this tendency. They find that while savings outcomes vary among participants, no characteristics (such as low income or public assistance) preclude saving. They examine effects of IDA design (the match rate, savings targets, and the use of automatic transfer) on savings results and analyze factors that influence varying rates of saving and spending over time. They conclude that financial education and other support services, though costly, improve savings performance. To address the issue of cost they suggest a two-tier system of IDA design, one with broad access and simple services and the other with targeted access and intensive services. Can the Poor Save? offers a wealth of lessons to those interested in saving and asset accumulation among the poor. It not only breaks new ground in the scientific study of savings behavior, but also offers concrete, evidence-based recommendations to improve policies designed to encourage the poor to save and how to make such policies more inclusive."--Provided by publisher.