Student Loans and Health-related Financial Hardship

Research has shown that student loan borrowers in repayment exhibit physical and mental health problems. These can be exacerbated by and contribute to health-related financial hardship. We use the 2015 U.S. National Financial Capability Study to examine the likelihood of having past due medical bills and of avoiding health care services by not purchasing prescribed medication, skipping tests or follow-up with a doctor or not seeking care for a medical problem. Borrowers on income-driven repayment plans and those who made late payments are found to be more likely to have unpaid medical bills and to have avoided required medical attention. In addition, those who completed their funded education program but had made a late payment were more likely to avoid seeking medical attention when needed. Practical implications for loan administrators and those working with students are discussed

Investment Behavior: Factors that Limit African Americans\u27 Investment Behavior

This study investigated factors that are likely to limit African Americans’ investment activity in the stock market by triangulating data from the 2015 FINRA Financial Capacity Study and a Financial Behavior/Capacity survey that targeted African Americans. The financial survey revealed the top self-reported reasons these African Americans gave for not investing which were, “I don\u27t understand how the stock market works”, “I don\u27t make enough money” and “I don’t want to lose my money . Logistic regression results for the FINRA African American sample indicate that those with more financial knowledge, those who participated in financial education, and those who were financially socialized by parents were more likely to invest. In terms of magnitude, financial education had a larger impact on the FINRA African Americans than on the FINRA Caucasians and parental financial socialization and financial knowledge had larger impacts on the FINRA Caucasians

The Platformed Money Ecosystem: Digital Financial Platforms, Datafication, and Reimagining Financial Well-being

Digital financial platforms have become an integral part of consumers\u27 lives–resulting in the datafication of everyday life and potential for uniquely impacting financial well-being. Extending previous transformative consumer research, we suggest financial well-being must center the ways digital financial platforms and their resulting data are increasingly enmeshed with financial decision making and consumption. Drawing on a theoretical lens of platformization, we propose the Platformed Money Ecosystem, which accounts for increased embeddedness of digital financial platforms within consumers\u27 lives and the subtlety of how everyday life is transformed into data: producing data at the micro-level, monetizing data at the meso-level, and regulating data at the macro-level. In conceptualizing the Platformed Money Ecosystem, we identify three data-informed considerations for scholars and policymakers to reimagine financial well-being: protecting consumer data, limiting data biases, and supporting data literacy

Homeownership and high-cost alternative borrowing

Homeowners are generally less likely to use short-term alternative loans such as payday loans, car title loans, and tax refund anticipation loans but this association has not been fully explored across all income groups and in the context of other homeownership characteristics. Using the 2009 U.S. National Financial Capability Study, this study shows that homeownership generally reduces the propensity for high-cost alternative borrowing across all income quintiles. However, home purchases made within the 5 years prior to 2009 increased the probability of alternative borrowing in the bottom two quintiles. Also, apart from the bottom quintile, homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages are more likely to resort to alternate loans compared to those without such mortgages. Surprisingly, those with home equity loans in the lower quintile are more likely to have used AFS loans as well