What Keeps the Poor from “Smoothing” Financial Risk?
From mutual aid cooperatives to burial societies, numerous informal and semiformal institutions exist to help households deal with financial risk.
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family finances
From Foster Care to Forever Families? How Does the Federal Adoption Tax Credit Affect Adoptions?
The Federal Adoption Tax Credit, introduced in 1997 to promote foster care adoption, became refundable for two tax years only,
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More Grooms than Brides—Does Marriage Market Competition Induce More Investment in Stocks?
The value of the stock market in both developing and developed countries has experienced tremendous growth recently, which has a
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Partial Schooling Subsidy Puts Kids into the Classroom—And to Work
Evidence suggests that government subsidies typically increase school attendance and at the same time decrease paid work by children. The
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Study Finds We Might Not Select the Best Bundled Insurance Plans for Our Needs
Choosing the right health insurance plan is difficult. People typically face large menus of plans that differ on various dimensions,
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Does an Inheritance Make You Work Less?
Many people are dying wealthier and leaving larger estates. At the same time, the old-age economic dependency ratio—the number of
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Who Needs a Ring? The 1996 Welfare Reform’s “Independence Effect”
In 1996 federal welfare reform replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, the oldest welfare program for
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Does Parents’ Access to Family Planning Increase Children’s Opportunities? Evidence from the War on Poverty and the Early Years of Title X
For the past several decades, the U.S. government has invested heavily in anti-poverty programs, like the Earned Income Tax Credit
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Study Finds Wives Often Lose When Husbands Take Social Security Early
Social Security provides a large portion of household income in old age. Most women receive at least some Social Security
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