Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this paper broadens the analysis of retirement savings by examining the effects of health, children, altruism, and family of origin attributes on the decision of whether to save for retirement and on how much retirement savings is accumulated....

We first show empirical evidence for complementarity between marraige and home- ownership: single males with a ‘marriage house’ - a house where the newlywed can move into - is 70% more likely to get married, and house prices and age at marriage are highly positively correlated across...

We explore the link between child gender and household financial decisions within a cultural environment that strongly favours having a son. Using data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we find that the presence of a daughter is associated with a lower saving rate, consistent with...

Intra-household heterogeneity can quantitatively affect the predictions of life-cycle portfolio choice models. Empirically, double-income households, single-income households and singles have different exposures to background risks and differ in covariates affecting financial decisions, reacting...

This paper provides the first systematic analysis of bequests left by married couples when the first member of the couple dies. I document that married couples frequently leave bequests to individuals other than the surviving spouse and that these "early" bequests can be large in magnitude....

The initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic fallout likely posed particular financial strain on U.S. households with children, who faced income disruptions from widespread jobs and hours cuts in addition to new childcare and instruction demands. One common expense for...

We assess the impact that real time money transfer technology has on consumer outcomes, particularly during periods of financial fragility. We do this by developing a new data set that documents use of Zelle - the most widely used P2P money transfer technology in the U.S. today - constructed...