Financial Inclusion

The Asset Building News Week is a weekly Friday feature on The Ladder, the Asset Building Program blog, designed to help readers keep up with news and developments in the asset building field. This week's topics include housing, taxes and wealth gaps, the safety net, and financial products.

A new study released this week examines a critical policy design question: what is the most effective way to increase retirement savings, including among lower-income workers? Most notably, the study finds that while tax subsidies to retirement savings result in a negligible increase in overall savings, “nudge” policies like automatic enrollment and default contributions boost retirement savings without corresponding decreases in other accounts. As noted in the N.Y. Times Economix blog, this research may have serious policy implications for tax reform in the U.S. – particularly as Congress seeks to raise revenue through lowering tax expenditures.

The way governments give aid to citizens in need has changed dramatically in recent years: the estimated number of government-to-person cash payments transferred electronically in 2012 has doubled from 2012 to 2009 — from 25 to 61 percent according to the data of countries examined by the Global Savings and Social Protection Initiative (GSSP).

The Asset Building News Week is a weekly Friday feature on The Ladder, the Asset Building Program blog, designed to help readers keep up with news and developments in the asset building field. This week's topics include housing, poverty, financial products, and government assistance programs.

Behavioral economics heavily contributes to the way we design asset building and savings programs. We know that savers respond to cues, nudges, incentives, and targeted choices. Seems simple enough. One thing we are learning, however, is that individuals need more than just incentives. There was a time when groups would offer $50 to open a savings account and wonder why the take-up rate didn’t surpass 10 percent.

The Asset Building News Week is a weekly Friday feature on The Ladder, the Asset Building Program blog, designed to help readers keep up with news and developments in the asset building field. This week's topics include Hurricane Sandy, inequality, retirement, employment, and financial education.

The Asset Building Program is pleased to announce a call for guest blog contributions. Our blog functions as a repository of information about our research projects and policy proposals, provides timely news analysis and updates from the field of asset building, and regularly features the work of partner organizations.

What topics are eligible for consideration on The Ladder?

We welcome posts that explore a range of topics, including, but not limited to: income and wealth inequality; federal, state and local savings policy; the interplay of homeownership, housing policy, and wealth; savings and credit product design; the role of assets in educational outcomes; public benefits and areas for reform; retirement security and savings; and the intersection of asset issues with race, gender, or other factors.

Who can contribute a guest post?

Those with expertise in relevant fields are welcome to submit a proposal for a guest post. Posts from asset building practitioners or others with “on the ground” experience, as well as posts from advocates, researchers and those with policy-oriented experience are all welcome.

The link between household wealth and youth’s educational outcomes has been confirmed by numerous research studies, finding that youth tend to do better educationally when their households have more wealth (click here and here for more information). A new paper from the Assets and Education Initiative at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare confirms the relationship between household wealth and math achievement for youth from the U.S. and Ghana. The paper adds a unique contribution to existing research.

The Asset Building News Week is a weekly Friday feature on The Ladder, the Asset Building Program blog, designed to help readers keep up with news and developments in the asset building field. This week's topics include the impact of Hurricane Sandy, inequality, the safety net, and financial products and education.