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...

This paper presents an empirical study of consumer responses to mandated information disclosures as measured by loan applicants rejecting approved high-cost mortgage loan offers in states with disclosure laws. Using 2005 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, this analysis suggests that state laws...

3.6 million more older American households have a mortgage than 2000, contributing to an increase in mortgage usage among the elderly of thirty-nine percent. Rather than collecting imputed rent, older households are borrowing against home equity, potentially with loan terms that exceed their...

In the U.S., a number of states have mandated personal finance classes in public school curricula to address perceived deficiencies in financial decision-making competency. Despite the growth of financial and economic education provided in public schools, little is known about the effect of...

The pragmatic field experiment is a flexible methodology for assessing public policies and programs. This study illustrates the use of the pragmatic approach with a novel program, LIFT-UP, where municipalities offered financial counseling to public water utility customers who were behind on...

This paper documents and examines the rise in mortgage usage among older Americans over the past 30 years. It uses data from a variety of sources including the Health and Retirement Study, Decennial Census, American Community Survey, Survey of Consumer Finances, and the American Housing Survey....