This chapter provides an overview of how digital technologies are transforming the financial services landscape. We highlight the latest in digital financial product and service offerings related to payments and transfers, savings and investments, borrowing, and risk management. We then consider...

This study examines the simultaneous impact of risk type and risk preferences on annuity demand. Through a quasi-experimental design that leverages individuals' reactions to their first malignant cancer diagnosis around retirement, we show that a 30% reduction in the present value of life...

We develop and estimate a life-cycle consumption savings model in which observed genetic variation is allowed to affect wealth accumulation through several distinct channels. We focus on genetic markers that predict educational attainment, aggregated into a predictive index called a polygenic...

Previous studies document a relationship between gambling activity at the aggregate level and investments in securities with lottery-like features. We combine data on individual gambling consumption with portfolio holdings and trading records to examine whether gambling and trading act as...

How do households adjust savings and consumption in response to liquidity from debt relief? I study this question using policy variation induced by federal student loan forbearance in the 2020 CARES Act and an individual-level panel of daily financial transactions for 315,000 borrowers....

Does the ancient farming culture shape the financial behavior of households today? Using a dataset covering over 90,000 households from a Chinese national survey, our study examines the relationship between the culture of rice cultivation and the financial behavior of modern households. We find...

We examine the role of race and racial concordance between financial advisors and their local community. We document significant differences in stock market participation based on community racial composition as well as differences in the characteristics of communities served by minority...

Scandals show that ethics is an important topic in financial planning. Our research analyses 212 financial ombudsman decisions (2013-2018) to understand the nature of financial planning misconduct in complaint decisions. We develop a coding structure to ascertain what professional conduct...

We analyze the financial portfolio performance of Belgian households, using data from the 2010, 2014 and 2017 waves of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey survey. We document the characteristics of households that participate in risky asset markets, and we examine which households...

We provide new evidence on the causal effect of unearned income on consumption, balance sheets, and financial outcomes by exploiting an experiment that randomly assigned 1000 individuals to receive $1000 per month and 2000 individuals to receive $50 per month for three years. The transfer...