Saving from poverty: A critical review of Individual Development Accounts

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Feldman

The much-heralded anti-poverty strategy of asset-building has been adopted by many countries across the world. Asset-building programmes are designed to help low-income families achieve long-term financial stability through savings and asset accumulation. This article offers a comprehensive and critical review of the current state of theory and research on asset-building programmes, with an emphasis on Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) in the United States. Studies of IDAs have involved quantitative evaluations of the programme, focusing on three key topics: the programme’s effects on clients’ savings behaviour, its effects on clients’ outlook on life, and its long-term impact. On the basis of a careful review of these findings, it is argued that the claim that IDA programmes and asset-building in general have the potential to reduce poverty is overrated and premature. The article builds on theoretical insights regarding the nature of neoliberalism to make sense of the picture portrayed in the research literature.

Author(s):  
Margaret S. Sherraden ◽  
Amanda Moore McBride ◽  
Stacie Hanson ◽  
Lissa Johnson

Previous research has found that individuals frame savings for short-term and long-term uses. These findings are reinforced through in-depth interviews with 59 participants and 25 controls in an experiment testing the effects of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). All respondents are from low-income households. IDA participants appear more likely than control respondents to earmark savings for long-term purposes and asset investments. This could be interpreted as a result of the institutional saving structure provided through the IDA program. IDA participants are presented with savings goals, which they believe are made attainable through conveyed expectations, matching funds, financial information, and staff facilitation. Interviews suggest that savings may lead to psychological, behavioral, and economic effects. Future research can explore the distinct and marginal effect that each institutional dimension has on savings over the long term and the effects of savings on family well being.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Grinstein-Weiss ◽  
Michael Sherraden ◽  
William G Gale ◽  
William M Rohe ◽  
Mark Schreiner ◽  
...  

We examine the long-term effects of a 1998–2003 randomized experiment in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Individual Development Accounts that offered low-income households 2:1 matching funds for housing down payments. Prior work shows that, among households who rented in 1998, homeownership rates increased more through 2003 in the treatment group than for controls. We show that control group renters caught up rapidly with the treatment group after the experiment ended. As of 2009, the program had an economically small and statistically insignificant effect on homeownership rates, the number of years respondents owned homes, home equity, and foreclosure activity among baseline renters. (JEL D14, H75, R21, R31)


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-328
Author(s):  
Sheri J. Brock ◽  
Danielle Wadsworth ◽  
Shelby Foote ◽  
Mary E. Rudisill

Institutions of higher education have a responsibility to prioritize the needs of society and local communities. One essential need prevalent in all communities is to address the rise of obesity and health risks due to lack of participation in physical activity. In the United States, children spend a small percentage of time engaged in physical activity, and engagement decreases further in adolescence and adulthood. Collaborative partnerships between kinesiology faculty at universities and community organizations are one avenue for engaging children in physical activity. Partnerships must be multilevel and community wide to evoke change and have long-term impact and sustainability. Within the context of community-based research, we propose a three-step framework for establishing collaborative partnerships: (1) determining the needs of partners; (2) discussing expertise, services, and philosophy; and (3) providing a quality product. In addition, we outline and illustrate our experiences when collaborating with community partners to promote physical activity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ramirez ◽  
Linda Oshin ◽  
Stephanie Milan

According to developmental niche theory, members of different cultural and ethnic groups often have distinct ideas about what children need to become well-adapted adults. These beliefs are reflected in parents’ long-term socialization goals for their children. In this study, we test whether specific themes that have been deemed important in literature on diverse families in the United States (e.g., Strong Black Woman [SBW], marianismo, familismo) are evident in mothers’ long-term socialization goals. Participants included 192 mothers of teenage daughters from a low-income city in the United States (58% Latina, 22% African American, and 20% European American [EA]/White). Socialization goals were assessed through a q-sort task on important traits for a woman to possess and content analysis of open-ended responses about what values mothers hoped they would transmit to their daughters as they become adults. Results from ANCOVAs and logistic regression indicate significant racial/ethnic differences on both tasks consistent with hypotheses. On the q-sort task, African American mothers put more importance on women possessing traits such as independence than mothers from other racial/ethnic groups. Similarly, they were more likely to emphasize self-confidence and strength in what they hoped to transmit to their daughters. Contrary to expectation, Latina mothers did not emphasize social traits on the q-sort; however, in open-ended responses, they were more likely to focus on the importance of motherhood, one aspect of marianismo and familismo. Overall, results suggest that these mothers’ long-term socialization goals incorporate culturally relevant values considered important for African American and Latino families.


Economies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Mirzosaid Sultonov

Russia’s international comportment and geostrategic moves, particularly the invasion of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, caused a substantial change in its international economic and political relations. In response to Russia’s invasion, the United States of America, the European Union, and their allies imposed a series of sanctions. In this study, by applying an exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model to daily logarithmic returns of the ruble exchange rate and the closing price index of the Russian Trading System, we analyze how the returns and volatility of the exchange rate and the stock price index responded to the sanctions and oil price changes. The estimation results show that the sanctions have a significant positive short-term impact on exchange rate returns. Economic sanctions have a significant negative long-term impact on the returns and variance of the exchange rate and a significant positive long-term impact on the returns of the stock price index. Financial sanctions have a positive/negative long-term impact on the returns of the exchange rate/stock price index and a positive long-term impact on the variance of the exchange rate and the stock price index. Corporate sanctions have a positive long-term impact on exchange rate returns.


Author(s):  
Erich A. Schneider ◽  
Neil Shah

While reasonable short-term resource price projections can be obtained by taking a bottom-up approach — constructing a supply curve based upon current production capacities and costs — this approach breaks down as the time horizon of the analysis lengthens. One approach to long-term price forecasting is to calibrate a simple model of a commodity market against past data. To that end, an analogy was drawn between the behavior of the uranium market and that of some three dozen materials for which the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) maintains data. This work adds to previously published results showing that the USGS-reported prices of minerals similar to uranium have consistently declined over the past century. In this paper, the extent to which uranium geology and extraction technologies are indeed analogous to other minerals is quantitatively addressed. A study of crustal abundances, ore grades being economically mined, concentration factors, market share of extraction techniques, years of proven reserve and other factors indicates that uranium is not at all exceptional with respect to the average of the USGS minerals. This suggests that, on the supply side, the analogy between the USGS minerals and uranium may indeed offer valuable insights into medium and long term uranium price behavior.


1984 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 800-813
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Fuchs

This essay explores the question of the impact of illegal migration on American unity and cultural pluralism in the United States. Assuming that over time the descendents of undocumented workers now in the United States will behave substantially like descendants of those who immigrate legally, the author concludes that the long-term impact of illegal migration barely will be noticeable provided it is reduced substantially in the future. The process of acculturation will work in the same way for both groups as it has for other ethnic groups in the past, given comparable levels of education and length of family residence in the United States. The author takes special notice of the illegal migration of Spanish-speaking workers and hypothesizes that the behavior of their descendants will not differ from the descendants of other immigrants, legal or illegal, in ways that disrupt fundamental patterns of American political unity and cultural pluralism.


Author(s):  
Kathleen A. Rounds ◽  
Traci L. Wike

Although rates of adolescent pregnancy have exhibited a downward trend since 1991, the United States continues to have a significantly higher rate than other industrialized nations. Adolescent pregnancy, especially in early and middle adolescence, has long-term developmental and economic impact on the teen and her child, in addition to high social costs. This entry describes the current trends in adolescent pregnancy in the United States, and examines factors reported in the research literature as associated with adolescent pregnancy, discusses federal policy directed toward adolescent pregnancy prevention, and identifies various intervention programs.


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