scholarly journals Signaling Status: The Impact of Relative Income on Household Consumption and Financial Decisions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Bricker ◽  
Jacob Krimmel ◽  
Rodney Ramcharan
Keyword(s):  
Household Consumption ◽  
High Status ◽  
County Level ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Status Goods ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

This paper investigates the importance of status in household consumption and credit decisions using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances linked to tract-level data in the American Community Survey. We find that relatively richer households in the census tract use more debt and spend more on high-status cars. Also, county-level evidence shows that the consumption of high-status cars is higher in more unequal counties. These results suggest that greater income heterogeneity might shape household consumption and credit decisions, as relatively richer households signal their higher status to their neighbors through the consumption of visible status goods. This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance.

scholarly journals Inequality and market concentration, when shareholding is more skewed than consumption

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 550-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Gans ◽  
Andrew Leigh ◽  
Martin Schmalz ◽  
Adam Triggs
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Relative Distribution ◽  
Consumer Expenditure ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Consumer Expenditure Survey ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Equity Ownership ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

AbstractEconomic theory suggests that monopoly prices hurt consumers but benefit shareholders. But in a world where individuals or households can be both consumers and shareholders, the impact of market power on inequality depends in part on the relative distribution of consumption and corporate equity ownership across individuals or households. The paper calculates this distribution for the United States, using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances and the Consumer Expenditure Survey, spanning nearly three decades from 1989 to 2016. In 2016, the top 20 per cent consumed approximately as much as the bottom 60 per cent, but had 15 times as much corporate equity. Because ownership is more skewed than consumption, increased mark-ups increase inequality. Moreover, over time, corporate equity has become even more skewed relative to consumption.

The impact of intra-EU migration on welfare chauvinism

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelius Cappelen ◽  
Yvette Peters
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Contact Theory ◽  
Intergroup Contact Theory ◽  
East European ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
European Immigrants ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWe examine whether intra-EU migration affects welfare chauvinistic attitudes, i.e. the idea that immigrants’ access to the welfare system should be restricted. According to the in-group/out-group theory, migration can unleash feelings of insecurity and thus trigger welfare chauvinism. According to intergroup contact theory, welfare chauvinism should decrease when immigration is higher, because contact reduces prejudice and softens anti-immigrant stances. We test these theories using data from the European Social Survey 2008/2009, supplemented with country-level data, and analyse these data using a multilevel ordered logit approach. We find a negative relation between intra-EU immigration and welfare chauvinism, supporting the intergroup contact theory: in countries with more intra-EU migration, welfare chauvinism tends to be lower. Furthermore, the higher the percentage of East European immigrants compared to other EU immigrants, the higher the level of welfare chauvinism.

Homeownership and Financial Strain Following the Collapse of the Housing Market: A Comparative Study on Loan Delinquencies Between Black and White Households

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard F. Bieker ◽  
Yoonkyung Yuh
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Residential Housing ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the extent to which homeownership contributed to household financial strain as measured by loan delinquency after the onset of the recent housing market crash, and to examine if the impact of homeownership on household financial strain differed for Black and White households. Using data from the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances, we found that, after controlling for other factors, a household's housing preferences had a potential effect on the likelihood of experiencing financial strain following the collapse of residential housing prices. In addition, Black homeowners were more likely to have experienced financial strain following the housing collapse than were White homeowners, regardless of the time period in which the home was purchased. The implications of the findings for public policy, personal financial planning and education, and further research are presented.

Dual private pension households and the distribution of wealth in the United States

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
NANCY AMMON JIANAKOPLOS ◽  
VICKIE L. BAJTELSMIT
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Household Wealth ◽  
Private Pension ◽  
Private Pensions ◽  
Net Worth ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

Using data from the 1998 Survey of Consumer Finances, this paper examines the impact of dual private pension households on the distribution of household wealth in the United States. This paper builds on three lines of previous research: inquiries into ‘assortative mating’, i.e., the tendency for people with similar characteristics to marry; studies emphasizing the importance of pensions as a component of household wealth; and recent research examining how wives' earnings alter the distribution of household income. Evidence of ‘assortative private pensions’, i.e., the tendency for people with private pensions to be married to people with private pensions, is presented. Estimates of the expected value of private pension and social security wealth are added to measures of household non-retirement net worth to obtain the value household wealth. These data indicate that wives' private pensions in dual private pension households contribute marginally to greater equality in the wealth distribution.

scholarly journals Invest As I Say, Not As I Do? Gender Dif-ferences In Financial Risk Preferences

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Ammon Jianakoplos
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Asset Allocation ◽  
Financial Risk ◽  
Risk Preferences ◽  
Financial Risks ◽  
Financial Assets ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Risky Assets ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Using Data

This paper examines gender differences in stated versus observed financial risk preferences. The responses of women versus men to a question regarding financial risk preferences are compared to the proportion of risky assets held in their portfolios using data from the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances. The data show that women are more likely to express an unwillingness to take financial risks. Stated financial risk preferences are found to be consistent with observed risk preferences at the ordinal, but not the quantitative, level. Contradicting their stated risk preferences, risky assets constitute, on average, one-third of the financial assets of households that indicate they are unwilling to take any financial risks. Financial planners and advisers frequently use a clients expressed willingness to take on risk as an important determinant in asset allocation recommendations. Consistent gender differences in these responses, in addition to inconsistencies between the clients stated risk preferences and observed portfolio allocation, may lead advisers to make inappropriate recommendations.

scholarly journals Impact of Economic Shocks on Cumulative Advantage Processes: Recession, Recovery, and Trajectories of Inequality

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 508-508
Author(s):  
Stephen Crystal
Keyword(s):  
Potential Role ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Subsequent Recovery ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Age Cohort ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract This study compares the effect of the 2008 recession and subsequent recovery across generational cohorts by evaluating age-cohort trajectories of income inequality. Using data from the 2007 to 2016 waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances, we examine the trajectory of inequality for the overall population and by cohort in years spanning the Great Recession and subsequent recovery. We find that increases in per-capita income and wealth observed at the population-level during the recovery were not reflected among households below the median, leading to increasing inequality. Within cohorts, we observe growing inequality within cohorts in their primary working years. Findings are consistent with a model of integrative cumulative dis/ advantage, which predicts increasing within-cohort inequality over the life course influenced both by persistent micro- and macro-level processes of increasing heterogeneity. Our analyses highlight the potential role of extreme business cycle fluctuations, booms and busts, to exacerbate this underlying process.

scholarly journals Financial Profiles of Workers Most Vulnerable to Coronavirus-Related Earnings Loss in the Spring of 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (093) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Brooke Helppie-McFall ◽  
◽  
Joanne W. Hsu ◽  
Keyword(s):  
People Of Color ◽  
Income Shocks ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Earnings Losses ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Wage Earners

In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdowns had huge effects on unemployment. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, we describe the financial profiles of US families whose workers were most vulnerable to coronavirus-related earnings losses in the spring of 2020, based on whether a particular worker was deemed "essential" and whether a worker's job could be conducted remotely. We use descriptive analytic techniques to examine how families' baseline financial situations would allow them to weather COVID-shutdown-related earnings losses. We find that families with non-teleworkable workers who were most vulnerable to layoff also had both demographic and financial profiles that are associated with greater vulnerability to income shocks: non-teleworkable families were more likely to be people of color and single wage-earners, and also to have less savings. The median non-teleworkable family, whether in non-essential or essential occupations, held only three weeks of income in savings, underscoring the importance of policy measures to blunt the financial effect of the COVID crisis.

Radiation oncologist density and colorectal cancer mortality.

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 605-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Aneja ◽  
J. B. Yu
Keyword(s):  
Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Radiation Therapy ◽  
Cancer Mortality ◽  
Cancer Registries ◽  
County Level ◽  
Radiation Oncologist ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Radiation Oncologists ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Impact

605 Background: Although the use of radiation therapy is increasing, there exists geographic variation among the distribution of radiation oncologists. The impact of this variation on colorectal cancer (CRC) outcomes remains unexplored. The goal of this study was to determine the effect of radiation oncologist density on CRC mortality. Methods: Using county-level data from the 2008 Area Resource File, National Program for Cancer Registries, and US Centers for Disease Control, a regression model was constructed for CRC mortality, controlling for county-level categorized radiation oncologists density, demographics, socioeconomic status and existing healthcare facilities. Results: There was a statistically significant reduction in CRC mortality (reduction in mortality ranging from 12% to 47%, p<0.001) associated with counties that possessed at least one radiation oncologist. However, increasing the county density to greater than two radiation oncologists per 100,000 people had no statistically significant reduction in CRC mortality. Conclusions: The presence of a radiation oncologist is associated with lowered mortality for CRC within that county, but increasing radiation oncologist density does not yield further improvements. Therefore, as the use of radiation therapy to treat CRC increases, a detailed understanding of distribution of the radiation oncologists is essential for providing the greatest improvement in cancer mortality outcomes. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Understanding the Unequal Post-Great Recession Wealth Recovery for American Families

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sisi Zhang ◽  
Shuaizhang Feng
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Family Level ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Race Ethnicity

AbstractThe wealth of US families had not returned to its prerecession level by 2013, six years after the onset of the Great Recession. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of this slow and uneven episode of wealth recovery, using family-level data from the Survey of Consumer Finances 1989–2013. Both descriptive results and regressions controlling for life cycle wealth accumulation show that families of color and less-educated families are falling behind in wealth recovery because their wealth portfolios are concentrated in housing, which has recovered very slowly. The decomposition results suggest that homeownership plays a significant role in explaining wealth disparity by race, ethnicity, and education at the mean and bottom of the wealth distribution. Understanding the uneven wealth recovery has important implications for redesigning asset-related policies and narrowing wealth gaps.

scholarly journals Wealth, Health, and Disability Gaps at Midlife: Implications for Disparate Retirement Outcome

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 586-586
Author(s):  
Stephen Crystal
Keyword(s):  
Health Inequality ◽  
Generation X ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Survey Of Consumer Finances ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Increasing Risk ◽  
Deaths Of Despair ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Late-life economic outcomes in coming years will be strongly shaped by the impact of economic and health experience for cohorts now at midlife. These cohorts have experienced lagging and increasingly disparate wealth accumulation, along with challenges to health and earning potential that augur highly disparate retirement futures. For example, analyses of Survey of Consumer Finances data indicate that in 2016, members of Generation X had mean assets that were only 39% those of the boomers in that year. Increasing risk of “deaths of despair” among individuals in midlife have been accompanied by increases in disability that threaten the ability of those members of these cohorts who are not in the educationally advantaged minority to achieve secure retirement futures, particularly in the context of increasing employment precarity. This presentation will review recent findings on midlife wealth and health inequality, implications for retirement futures, and policy choices facing a new Presidential administration.

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