This paper investigates the possible opportunity cost of using standard college savings plans against the advantages of using debt to pay for college. In addition, it presents a practical argument for using debt in place of college savings plans in certain instances.By doing so, investors may...

Globally, 1.7 billion adults still lack access to formal financial services, with a large percentage living in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Current financial inclusion strategies seek to enhance these vulnerable populations' access to financial services with the aim of building more...

This paper empirically studies how college savings motives affect household stock market participation. More than 65% of households saving for college allocate at least a portion of their college savings to stocks, which are also the most popular class of risky assets for college savings...

We study how past experiences with privacy shocks affect individuals’ likelihood to take precautionary behavior when faced with a new privacy shock in the context of credit markets. We focus on experiences with identity theft and data breaches, two kinds of privacy shocks that either directly...

This paper studies how past experiences with privacy shocks affect individuals’ take-up of precautionary behavior when faced with a new privacy shock in the context of credit markets. We focus on experiences with identity theft and data breaches, two kinds of privacy shocks that either...

This paper studies how the portfolio allocation of college savings affects children's college attendance and student debt using novel data on 529 college savings accounts linked with student-level longitudinal data. Employing exogenous variation in the portfolio allocation of 529 accounts driven...

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...

Financial capability is an important factor that contributes to consumer financial wellbeing. In the research literature, financial capability has multiple meanings that could refer to financial literacy, financial behavior, financial access, and/or financial outcome, depending on different...

We study the relationship between the labor market for loan officers and access to credit in the residential mortgage market. Using novel data matching the (near) universe of mortgage applications to loan officers, we find that minorities are significantly underrepresented among mortgage loan...

Peer effects can lead to better financial outcomes or help propagate financial mistakes across social networks. Using unique data on peer relationships and portfolio composition, we show considerable overlap in investment portfolios when an investor recommends their brokerage to a peer. We argue...