We examine households' financial fragility by looking at their capacity to come up with $2,000 in 30 days. Using data from the 2009 TNS Global Economic Crisis Study, we document that approximately one-quarter of U.S. respondents are certain they could not come up with that sum. If we include...

We analyze a national sample of Americans with respect to their debt literacy, financial experiences, and their judgments about the extent of their indebtedness. Debt literacy is measured by questions testing knowledge of fundamental concepts related to debt and by self-assessed financial...

Objective We examine how the economic crisis has affected individuals’ use of routine medical care and assess the extent to which the impact varies depending on national context. Methods Data from a new cross‐national survey fielded in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, and...

The article reports on a study of U.S. consumers which found that the majority of respondents did not understand the concepts relating to compound interest, credit card fees, and debt. The study on debt literacy was conducted by the authors and the marketing research company TNS. The authors...

We use a unique, nationally representative cross-national dataset to document the reduction in individuals' usage of routine non-emergency medical care in the midst of the economic crisis. A substantially larger fraction of Americans have reduced medical care than have individuals in Great...

We analyze a national sample of Americans with respect to their debt literacy, financial experiences, and their judgments about the extent of their indebtedness. Debt literacy is measured by questions testing knowledge of fundamental concepts related to debt and by self-assessed financial...

Savings bonds have always served multiple objectives: funding the U.S. government, democratizing national financing, and enabling families to save. Increasingly, the authors write, that last goal has been ignored. A series of efficiency measures introduced in 2003 make these bonds less...

We examine the information flow for four stocks over seven months to trace the relationship between on-line discussion, news activity, and stock price movements. On-line discussions support numerous unsubstantiated rumors, substantial on-point exchanges, and quick dissemination of imminent and...

Most mutual funds use day-old fund holdings but current-day prices to calculate net asset values. This practice, sanctioned under SEC Rule 2a-4, results in deviations between reported net asset values (NAVs) and returns and the economic values of those quantities. Using a sample of 26 funds'...

Using a new database, we document the determinants of involuntary consumer bank account closures. During 2001–2005, approximately 30 million debit accounts were involuntarily closed for excessive overdrafting. We focus on multiple factors to explain this phenomenon: household economics and...