Financial Literacy and Capability Research Resources

Financial Literacy and Capability Research

Resources

March 27, 2013

Financial Literacy and Capability Research Resources

Presentation Outline Federal interest in financial literacy Resources for researchers Funding opportunities


Federal interest in financial literacy The federal government has had a long interest

in ensuring that the American public is financially literate and capable.

The cornerstone of the federal government’s current financial literacy efforts is the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC). FLEC is chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury and the vice

chair is the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Commission is made up of the heads of 19 additional federal agencies.


To learn about financial literacy and education topics of interest across the federal government, see FLEC’s 2012 Research Priorities and Research Questions.

As this document notes, “Many of the research questions address traditionally underserved and vulnerable populations that may be financially fragile, and can least afford costly mistakes.”

Leverage FLEC’s work to better understand the state of financial literacy and the types of research still needed.

The Financial Literacy and Education Commission

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/financial-education/Documents/2012%20Research%20Priorities%20-%20May%2012.pdf


Resources for Researchers SSA has provided support to increase the sample size

of vulnerable groups (including minorities and the low-income population) in two national surveys:

The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) The American Life Panel (ALP)

In addition to the direct support for the HRS and the ALP, SSA has also served on the research work group for the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) that is funded by the FINRA Foundation.


Resources for Researchers All of these surveys continue to build the data

infrastructure to allow researchers to better address retirement security and financial literacy among vulnerable groups. Leverage these resources to make new research feasible and cost-

effective.

The next section describes these data sets in more depth.


Health and Retirement Study (HRS) The HRS is a longitudinal study the University of Michigan

administers to over 22,000 individuals age 50 and over every two years.

Notable features of the HRS The HRS allows you to make household-level estimates. For about ten years the survey instrument has included financial

literacy questions, in addition to a variety of questions that can address aging, retirement security, and well-being.

SSA support has allowed Michigan to increase the minority sample size which lessens the probability that researchers will have to worry about cell suppression issues because of identification of panel members.

http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/


American Life Panel (ALP) The ALP is an innovative, internet-based survey panel

RAND administers that includes nearly 6,000 respondents. Notable features of the ALP

Allows researchers to match answers from a panel member in one survey to the answers in any other survey that the panel member has taken. Existing ALP surveys cover a multitude of topics, including financial literacy.

Because the ALP is an internet panel, researchers can fund new surveys through the ALP and receive quick results.

SSA support has allowed RAND to increase the sample size of minority and low-income groups, making the survey useful for analyses of these populations (see the chart on the next slide).

http://www.rand.org/labor/roybalfd/american_life.html

Financial Literacy and Capability Research Resources Demographics for the ALP as of March 2013

EthnicityTota

l %White 4359 73.79%African American 719 12.17%Native American 77 1.30%Asian 118 2.00%Other 634 10.73%

Total 5907100.00

%


National Financial Capability Study (NFCS)

The NFCS , funded by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, is a survey that provides a baseline for the financial capability of the American public.

Notable features of the NFCS FINRA worked with the FLEC agencies and the President’s Advisory

Council for Financial Capability on the survey questionnaire. The NFCS allows for state-level analysis, as it includes both a

national survey and a state-by-state survey (28,000 respondents, completed online).

The first round of the NFCS was administered in 2009 and the second was administered in 2012 (not longitudinal).

FINRA also administered the second survey instrument to 2,000 panel members in the ALP.

http://www.finrafoundation.org/programs/p123306


Other Surveys The HRS, ALP, and NFCS are examples of useful data

sets. Researchers have also used other sources for their financial literacy and capability research.

Additional resources include: Knowledge Networks Panel Current Population Survey Columbia Center for Decision Sciences Panel

http://www.knowledgenetworks.com/knpanel/index.html

http://www.census.gov/cps/

http://www.census.gov/cps/

http://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/decisionsciences/home


Funding Opportunities Minorities and Retirement Security Program FINRA Foundation Federal Funding Opportunities


Minorities and Retirement Security Program The Minorities and Retirement Security (MRS) Program will

provide grants to support sheltered competitive post-graduate apprentice scholars (fellows) at selected minority serving graduate institutions in the area of retirement security.

Priority research areas: Financial literacy Personal savings Labor force planning Financial decisionmaking Personal debt Low- to moderate-income communities

Minorities and Retirement Security Program Closed on March 25th. However, once the grants are awarded to the individual

institutions, it would be possible to request that ED use other program grant funds awarded to the grantee to support the programmatic portion of a small intervention, while using the MRS grant money to complete the evaluation.

If you have any questions about the MRS program please refer to the HEP MRS Presentation or go the grant website.


http://www2.ed.gov/programs/mrs/index.html


FINRA Foundation Through the General Grant Program, the FINRA

Investor Education Foundation funds research and educational projects that support its mission of providing underserved Americans with the knowledge, skills and tools necessary for financial success throughout life.


FINRA Foundation In 2013, the FINRA Foundation welcomes applications for

projects of approximately $50,000–$100,000 that advance understanding of the relationships among financial literacy, financial capability and financial well-being.

Priority will be given to projects that use data from the NFCS and other existing data sets. The Grant Guidelines specify eligibility requirements and other criteria. As always, review the guidelines carefully.

http://www.finrafoundation.org/grants/general/guidelines/


Federal Funding Opportunities All federal agencies post grant opportunities on grants.gov.

You can sign up for alerts that will allow you to be informed when new opportunities are posted.

Federal agencies that do not have grant making authority must post their funding opportunities on FedBizOpps.gov. You can sign up for alerts that will allow you to be informed when new opportunities are posted.

http://www.grants.gov/

https://www.fbo.gov/


If you have any questions about this presentation feel free to contact me at:[email protected]

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