A life-cycle savings model was tested to analyze consumption patterns of elderly U.S. households, using the 1990 and 1991 BLS Interview Survey of Consumer Expenditures. The model implies substantial, planned decreases in consumption after retirement, regardless of income patterns. The empirical...

Positive household finance attempts to describe, explain, and perhaps predict behavior. Some researchers have analyzed household survey data to estimate household preferences, which then could be used as the basis for prescriptions for household behavior. In order to prescribe actions or...

Many researchers have examined the influence of the financial planning horizon variable in the Survey of Consumer Finances and the Health and Retirement Study. The question asks respondents to choose the most important time period for saving and spending decisions. These researchers have assumed...

This study investigates racial/ethnic differences in high return investment ownership in the U.S. Households with low levels of financial assets might not be able to meaningfully make investment choices, so a Heckman two-stage selection model was used to separate minimum asset level status from...

In order to understand optimal decision-making about saving, credit use, investing, insurance, and other financial decisions, it is useful to understand decision rules, such as choosing the action with the highest expected value or utility. To understand why people might decisions inconsistent...

Which spouse is more knowledgeable about the household's finances in mixed‐sex married couple households? The answer to this question can be inferred from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which assigns the title of “respondent” to the person the household indicates is more...

Which spouse is more knowledgeable about the household’s finances in mixed-sex married couple households? The answer to this question can be inferred from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which assigns the title of “respondent” to the person the household indicates is more...

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between myopic time discounting and financial well-being moderated by financial knowledge, guided by the dual-self theory. Regression results with data from the 2016 National Financial Well-Being Survey sponsored by the Consumer Financial...

This study explores financial knowledge patterns from 2009 to 2018, focusing on objective and subjective knowledge, overconfidence in financial knowledge, and “Don’t know” responses. We used four waves of National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) datasets. Objective financial knowledge...

Economists conducting normative analyses of household financial decisions typically assume specific values of parameters of the household utility function. We review 12 normative analyses and discuss justifications for the personal discount rates assumed. None of the normative articles cited an...