- Valuing Control, Peter C. DiCola, 113 Michigan Law Review 663 (2015).
- A Framework for Understanding Property Regulation and Land Use Control from a Dynamic Perspective, Donald J. Kochan, 4 Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law 303 (2015).
- The Use of Listed Real Estate Securities in Asset Management, Alex Moss & Andrew Baum.
- Financial Literacy, Broker-Borrower Interaction, and Mortgage Default, James Neil Conklin.
- Mortgage Default, Juan Carlos Hatchondo, Leonardo Martinez & Juan M. Sanchez.
Tag Archives: financial literacy
Who Knows The ABCs of Finance?
Annamaria Lusardi recently posted a working paper, Financial Literacy: Do People Know the ABCs of FInance? to SSRN. The abstract reads,
Increasingly, individuals are in charge of their own financial security and are confronted with ever more complex financial instruments. However, there is evidence that many individuals are not well-equipped to make sound saving decisions. This paper looks at financial literacy, which is defined as the ability to process economic information and make informed decisions about financial planning, wealth accumulation, debt, and pensions. Failure to plan for retirement, lack of participation in the stock market, and poor borrowing behavior can all be linked to ignorance of basic financial concepts. Financial literacy impacts financial decision-making, with implications that apply to individuals, communities, countries, and society as a whole. Given the lack of financial literacy among the population, it may be important to remedy it by adding financial literacy to the school curriculum.
As I have stated previously, not only is financial literacy in bad shape, but efforts to improve it have not proven to be very effective. Lusardi’s paper has some sobering findings:
most individuals in the United States and in other countries cannot
perform simple calculations and do not understand basic financial concepts such as interest compounding, the difference between nominal and real values, and risk diversification. Knowledge of more complex concepts, such as the difference between bonds and stocks, the workings of mutual funds, and basic asset pricing, is even scarcer. Financial illiteracy is widespread among the general population and particularly acute among specific demographic groups, such as women, the young and the old, and those with low educational attainment. (3)
Because evidence does not demonstrate that additional financial education is all that effective, I take a different lesson from Lusardi’s review of survey results. The government should take an active role in regulating financial markets to protect consumers from abusive behavior and to encourage them to make good financial decisions. Financial education is no replacement for consumer protection.
Wednesday’s Academic Roundup
- Lottery Allocations and Games for Public Rental Apartments, by Zhan Wang, Jinpeng Ma, & Hongwei Zhang, March 1, 2015.
- Wages, Housing Prices and Commutes, by Tom Mayock, Real Estate Economics, Forthcoming.
- Financial Literacy, Broker-Borrower Interaction, and Mortgage Default, by James Neil Conklin, Real Estate Economics, Forthcoming.
- Is Timing Everything? Race, Homeownership, and Net Worth in the Tumultuous 2000s, by Sandra J. Newman, Real Estate Economics, Forthcoming.
- Option Market-Based Predictors of REIT Leverage Changes, by Paul Borochin, John L. Glascock, Ran Lu-Andrews, & Jie Yang, Georgetown McDonough School of Business Research Paper No. 2577414.
- Rent-to-Own Housing Contracts Under Financial Constraints, by Sanjiv Jaggia & Pratish Patel, March 10, 2015.
Realistic Strategies for Consumer Education
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued its latest Strategic Plan, Budget, and Performance Plan and Report. I was critical of last year’s strategic plan as it related to financial education. I felt that the CFPB was too optimistic about the efficacy of financial education, given the current state of research on this topic.
I was impressed, however, by the CFPB’s approach in this year’s strategic plan:
The CFPB believes that financial education’s primary goal is to help consumers to take the steps necessary to make choices that will improve their financial well-being and help them reach their own life goals. However, prior to the start of the CFPB’s work, very little empirical research had been conducted in the financial education field regarding what variables measure financial health in terms of real-world outcomes for consumers. By defining these variables through data-driven research, the Bureau will be able to define what knowledge and skills are associated with financial health. This research will inform the Bureau’s ongoing efforts to identify, highlight, and spread effective approaches to financial education. (64)
I am pleased that the CFPB appears to be more skeptical about the efficacy of consumer education in this strategic plan and that is reflected in its performance measure:
FY 2013: Identify variables that are likely to be key drivers of financial health
FY 2014: Develop and test metrics (questions) that accurately measure these variables
FY2015: Develop and implement framework for integration into Consumer Education and Engagement Activities; Complete testing financial health metrics
FY2016: Use metrics to establish a baseline of U.S. consumer financial well-being and begin testing hypotheses of identified success factors in consumer financial decision-making (64-65)
This performance measure does not make assumptions about the efficacy of financial education. By treating the topic like a blank slate, it is more likely that the Bureau will be able to avoid dead ends and blind alleys as it attempts to help people to navigate the world of consumer finance.
This is not to say that the Bureau will necessarily be successful. But it does appear that the Bureau is not falling for some of the wishful thinking that some of those in the financial education field have succumbed to.
The Secret to Financial Well-Being?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a report, Financial Well-Being: The Goal of Financial Education. I have been somewhat critical of the CFPB’s approach to financial literacy education, but I think that this report sets forth a pretty reasonable baseline for future research. It states,
A growing consensus is emerging that the ultimate measure of success for financial literacy efforts should be improvement in individual financial well-being. But financial well-being has never been explicitly defined, nor is there a standard way to measure it. Overall, the literature paints a picture of nuanced, complex interactions between financial knowledge, understanding, and actions taken. However, rigorously identified links between these factors and financial outcomes have yet to be established.
Our project provides a conceptual framework for defining and measuring success in financial education by delivering a proposed definition of financial well-being, and insight into the factors that contribute to it. This framework is grounded in the existing literature, expert opinion, and the experiences and voice of the consumer garnered through in-depth, one-on-one interviews with working-age and older consumers. (4-5)
The CFPB proposes a definition of financial well-being “as a state of being” where people
- Have control over day-to-day, month-to-month finances;
- Have the capacity to absorb a financial shock;
- Are on track to meet your financial goals; and
- Have the financial freedom to make the choices that allow you to enjoy life.
Because individuals value different things, traditional measures such as income or net worth, while important, do not necessarily or fully capture this last aspect of financial well-being. (5)
This all seems reasonable to me in the abstract, although I am not sure how you would measure success across a large group of people given the very different ways that people would respond to the prongs of that definition. I would also note that events beyond the control of a financially literate person (illness, structural unemployment etc.) could devastate that person’s financial well-being, much as upright Job was devastated by the tests he had to endure. Notwithstanding these concerns, I am looking forward to see how the CFPB uses its definition to develop its research agenda and to design its policies.
Catalyzing Savings
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced a Project Catalyst Pilot to Promote Regular Saving Behavior Among Prepaid Card Users.The pilot involves an American Express product, a prepaid card with a saving feature.
The CFPB’s research study associated with this pilot will explore two major research questions:
1. Can certain strategies encourage or support regular consumer saving behavior?
2. Is saving behavior associated with better outcomes for consumers, particularly for
low-income and underserved consumers?
Within these broad questions, the research goals for this project are to:
> Gain insight into consumer saving behavior and identify practices that promote saving behavior among prepaid card users
> Evaluate the impact of saving on consumer wellbeing among prepaid card users (2)
I have been critical of some of the CFPB’s financial literacy initiatives, but this seems like a good one. What is important about this pilot study is that it is not just evaluating whether consumers respond to the product in the expected way — save more, for instance — but whether it has longer-term and more significant effects. Does it help consumers develop saving habits in other contexts? Do those saving habits lead to better outcomes in housing and consumer credit contexts? These are really important questions. If the pilot study helps to answer them, it will be of great value.
Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Works
The Urban Institute published a study, National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program Evaluation Final Report, Rounds 3 Through 5, that it prepared for NeighborWorks® America. The executive summary notes that
The National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) program is a special federal appropriation, administered by NeighborWorks® America (NeighborWorks), designed to support a rapid expansion of foreclosure intervention counseling in response to the nationwide foreclosure crisis. The NFMC program seeks to help homeowners facing foreclosure by providing them with much-needed foreclosure prevention and loss mitigation counseling. The objective of the counseling services provided to clients is to determine the most appropriate solution, given a client’s circumstances and aid them in obtaining this solution. NeighborWorks distributes funds to competitively selected Grantee organizations, which in turn provide counseling, either directly or through Subgrantee organizations. (v)
The Urban Institute found that households counseled through NFMC were nearly 3 times more likely to have received a loan modification than non-counseled households. The authors estimate that “nearly two-thirds of the 151,000 loan modifications that NFMC clients received after entry into counseling would not have happened at all without the assistance of their counselor.” (vii)
On the one hand, these are very significant results and seem to validate this approach to foreclosure mitigation counseling. On the other hand, there is a lot of literature that calls into question the efficacy of various forms of financial counseling. It is important that this study be peer reviewed to ensure that its methods and conclusions are valid. If it holds up, it is equally important that we determine why this approach is so much more effective than many others.
