A lack of financial literacy can hamper the ability of individuals to make well-informed financial decisions. For people who exhibit problems with financial decision making, financial advice has the potential to serve as a substitute for financial knowledge and capability. However, data from the...

There is debate over why lenders are unwilling to modify more mortgages, ranging from structural to macroeconomic factors. This paper introduces the information problem that borrowers and lenders face and examines third party mediation as a mechanism to overcome this problem. Mediation offers...

Nonprofit organizations are one of the primary channels through which financial literacy services are delivered to lower-income adults in the US. There are several reasons why the nonprofit sector is involved in promoting financial literacy, including perceptions that nonprofit organizations are...

Starting in 2008, the number of homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure began increasing dramatically. Given that troubled borrowers may not fully understand their options for modifying their mortgage, lenders and policymakers have reacted to rising foreclosure filings by increasing the use...

Financial education is commonly assumed to affect knowledge and behavior, yet its impacts remain relatively untested. Very low-income families in a subsidized housing program were randomly assigned to a mandatory financial education program and tracked for 12 months. Financial education led to...

Prior to 2010 regulatory changes, lenders faced few penalties for disclosing inaccurate mortgage closing costs to borrowers during the mortgage application process. Given this policy context, lenders might have intentionally understated closing costs in order to lure unsuspecting borrowers into...

This article reviews the evaluation literature on financial education and counseling for adults in order to synthesize implications for research and practice. Most evaluations report positive impacts, but the findings are often small when compared with valid comparison groups. Many evaluations...

Using 2005 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, this study explores problematic mortgage application behaviors including submitting incomplete paperwork when seeking a mortgage, withdrawing a loan application before the lender makes a credit decision, rejecting a lender approved loan offer and...

Due to the rise in foreclosure filings, policymakers are increasingly concerned with helping families in financial distress keep their homes. This paper tests the extent to which distressed mortgage borrowers benefit from three types of state foreclosure polices: (1) judicial foreclosure...

Concerns about consumers' ability to manage personal finances have triggered proposals for a range of solutions, including some aimed at elementary school–aged learners (ages 5–11). The goal of these approaches is to improve lifelong financial decision making, but the evidence supporting...