Creating a marketplace: information exchange and the secondary market for community development loans

The “electronic marketplace” allows participating buyers and sellers to exchange information about market prices and product offerings, with a goal to establish buyer-seller relationships. This article explores how to foster these relationships with community development lenders and investors.

Prize Linked Accounts for Youth (PLAY): a new approach to youth financial education and saving

Mission SF Community Financial Center, a nonprofit affiliate of the Mission SF Federal Credit Union in San Francisco, CA, has developed an innovative approach to teaching youth financial education and encouraging youth to save by awarding a prize linked to their savings behavior. This article looks at the experiences of youth in the first year of the pilot program, and summarizes the pilot’s successes and challenges in providing financial education to youth and encouraging them to reach their savings goals. Although the first year pilot was small, the initial results are encouraging. Youth who participated in the program saved an average of $78 over three months, and also demonstrated increases in their financial knowledge and in positive financial behaviors.Financial literacy

The current landscape of the California housing market

California's housing market has been severely affected by the foreclosure crisis. The state's high foreclosure rate has also contributed to neighborhood destabilization in many communities, resulting in negative spillover effects such as price declines and increased crime and blight. In light of these rapid changes in the housing landscape, this report provides a current "snapshot" of California's housing market in the wake of the foreclosure crisis. It presents historical trends as well as current data on foreclosures, home prices, and affordability, and also considers the state's future housing needs. Given the state's sheer size and dramatic regional variation, the report also digs down into conditions at the regional and county level. The study hopes to inform stakeholders from across the state and help in the development of a strategic response to the drastic changes that have taken place in California's housing market over the past few years.Housing - California ; Foreclosure - California

Financial education for a stable financial future

Financial literacy

Beyond shelter: investing in quality affordable housing

As the demand for affordable housing grows during these troubled economic times, investment and policy aimed at shoring up supply becomes increasingly important.Housing ; Housing policy

Addressing widening income inequality through community development

An overview of the history, causes, and current implications for the community development field of widening income inequality in America.Income distribution ; Community development

Back to school and back to work: community colleges and workforce development

Education ; Occupational training

Improving evaluation and metrics in youth financial education

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Take Charge America Institute at the University of Arizona, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis invited a small group of researchers and practitioners to discuss how to improve the evaluation and metrics of youth financial education programs. The meeting focused specifically on youth — which we defined as individuals under the age of 25 – in an effort to distinguish this effort from others that have discussed financial education research more broadly. The goal for the meeting was to help create a research agenda that would move the field towards the development of clearly defined outcomes for youth financial education, metrics for capturing ROI, and quality standards for curriculum and delivery that would serve as "best practices" for educators seeking to offer effective financial education interventions.Financial literacy ; Education

lordif: An R Package for Detecting Differential Item Functioning Using Iterative Hybrid Ordinal Logistic Regression/Item Response Theory and Monte Carlo Simulations

Logistic regression provides a flexible framework for detecting various types of differential item functioning (DIF). Previous efforts extended the framework by using item response theory (IRT) based trait scores, and by employing an iterative process using group--specific item parameters to account for DIF in the trait scores, analogous to purification approaches used in other DIF detection frameworks. The current investigation advances the technique by developing a computational platform integrating both statistical and IRT procedures into a single program. Furthermore, a Monte Carlo simulation approach was incorporated to derive empirical criteria for various DIF statistics and effect size measures. For purposes of illustration, the procedure was applied to data from a questionnaire of anxiety symptoms for detecting DIF associated with age from the Patient--Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System.