This paper studies how and why consumers respond to unexpected, transitory income shocks. In a randomized control trial, I elicit marginal propensities to consume (MPC) out of different hypothetical income shock scenarios, varying the payment mode, the shock size, and the source of income. The...

We conduct an ex-ante evaluation of a health insurance reform in Chile that mandates non-discriminatory premiums with respect to age and gender in the private health insurance system. A counterfactual analysis is performed using an estimated model of consumption-saving with a binary...

Poverty is typically measured as insufficient yearly income or consumption. In practice, however, poverty is marked by seasonality, economic instability, and illiquidity across months. To capture within-year variability, we extend traditional poverty measures to include a temporal dimension....

Despite persistent efforts to deal with life's economic challenges, most Ghanaians are financially insecure, making the pursuit of lifelong goals more difficult. Given these realities, financial literacy and consumer financial stability appear viable strategies for promoting economic stability....

Drawing on detailed panel data, we find that gifts and inheritances substantially increase households’ private pension savings in accounts which are costly or impossible to withdraw prematurely. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that (a) the average difference in bequest-induced...

This study considers an under-explored channel through which credit-constrained house- holds may smooth consumption – buying ahead. We employ a differences-in-differences-in- differences strategy and exploit variation from state tax laws introduced in different states in different years. Using...

The TIAA Institute recently published a study on financial and longevity literacy. Improving knowledge about these topics enables and promotes saving, investing, and planning behaviors that lead to better financial outcomes in retirement. Unfortunately, the survey indicated that most adults have...

Does automatic enrollment into retirement saving increase household debt? We study the randomized roll-out of automatic enrollment pensions to ~160,000 employers in the United Kingdom with 2-29 employees. We find that the additional savings generated through automatic enrollment are partially...

Using administrative data on mortgages issued in Italy between 2018 and 2019, this paper estimates loan demand elasticities to maturity and interest rate. We find that households are responsive to both contract terms: a 1% decrease in interest rate increases the average loan size by 0.22%...

To analyze the impact of changes in the value of marriage on household decisions, we present a limited commitment framework of household behavior in which decisions are made regarding labor supply, divorce and housing demand over the lifecycle. We identify and estimate our structural model using...