Bankruptcy stigma is commonly thought to influence debtors' bankruptcy filing decisions. Despite its importance, researchers have not collected direct quantitative measures of bankruptcy stigma, either in terms of attitudes toward bankruptcy or evaluations of filers. Across two empirical...

Expectations about stock market movements are an important factor in models of investments and savings. To better understand consumers' financial behavior, economic surveys such as the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) ask participants to report expectations about the stock market. However,...

Many situations involving search, such as commuters trying out new routes or organizations testing new procedures, can subject the explorer to the potential for subjective losses – situations that are worse than the status quo. How does the potential for experiencing losses during the course...

To improve consumers’ financial decisions, many policymakers support financial education programs. However, some eligible consumers do not participate, limiting program effectiveness. The authors examine a homebuying and mortgage education website offered to more than 6,000 prospective...

The Behavioral Life‐Cycle hypothesis (Thaler & Shefrin, 1981) models consumers as having both impatient “doer” preferences, representing their desire to spend now, and patient “planner” preferences, representing long‐run welfare considerations. The Behavioral Life‐Cycle hypothesis...