Savings

A growing number of research studies investigate the association between children's savings and their educational outcomes, findings which suggest providing children with savings accounts at an early age may be a way to improve their educational outcomes. A recent press release summarizes these research studies, many of which have been conducted by researchers at the University of Kansas and the Center for Social Development. Research also suggests children’s college-bound identities—whether or not they expect to graduate from college—are also associated with children’s educational outcomes. Along these lines, it may be useful to know whether interventions that combine savings plus college-bound identity are best for improving college attendance. A new study has recently been released on the Center for Social Development's website that addresses this very question. This post summarizes findings from William Elliott and colleagues’ paper, Toward a Children's Savings and College-Bound Identity Intervention for Raising College Attendance Rates. Results are forthcoming in the journal Sociology Mind. 

The release of the 2010 U.S. Census data about poverty spawned a flurry of writing, thinking, and, of course, tweeting about the causes, status of, and solutions to widespread poverty in the U.S. This post is a smattering of analysis of the poverty numbers from the past week with our reactions and links to past work on the topics being discussed. Other organizations have compiled great, comprehensive lists of news and publications on the data release so this post chimes in and builds on that conversation.

This post is adapted from "Playing with Product Data on SPINNAKER: The Philippines as the Prototype" on the SPINNAKER Network

“We need data. We need to have a way to know what is working and what is not. There are no common indicators. There are no benchmarks for success.

NPR recently ran a two part series about the racial wealth gap – the economic divide between white families and Black and Hispanic families that stems from disparities in wealth (income and assets minus any debts). Both pieces illustrate how assets make the difference between financial stability and perpetual economic insecurity. Assets provide a cushion to fall back on during difficult times as well as a vehicle of economic mobility.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to discuss the recent poverty and income numbers from Census on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show.

Over the past few years, Reid Cramer and Jeffrey Lubell, the Executive Director for the Center on Housing Policy, have worked on identifying ways to improve asset building opportunities among people receiving federal housing assistance. Their paper, “Taking Asset Building and Earning Incentives to Scale in HUD-Assisted Rental Housing,” details possible models that could improve the existing housing subsidy program.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas dedicated an issue of its series “Banking and Community Perspectives” earlier this year to the issue of asset building in a rural context. “Asset Building Taking Root in Rural Communities” provides a thorough overview of the unique challenges of building wealth and economic security in rural areas and features promising regional initiatives that seek to do just that. To date, policymakers, non-profits, and the private sector have collaborated on diverse approaches to asset building in the area from IDAs in New Mexico and Louisiana to community tax centers and financial literacy efforts in Texas.

Originally posted on Microlinks

Yesterday, Pew’s Economic Mobility Project released a new report that focused on various contributors to uneven downward economic mobility. As I mentioned in a post last week about another Pew report, economic mobility refers to movement up or down the income ladder over time or across generations. The title of this report “Downward Mobility from the Middle Class: Waking Up from the American Dream” reminds us what is at stake.