Join us for a panel discussion with experts from the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) and MissionSquare Research Institute (MSRI). This session is designed to empower conference attendees with the knowledge and tools needed to secure funding for impactful research.
NEFE's panelists will discuss their commitment to rigorous, innovative, and actionable research that increases the financial education community’s body of knowledge, provides insight into financial behavior, and contributes to the field’s understanding of effective educational practices. Attendees will learn about previously funded research topics, the current grant cycle, and receive tips for successful grant applications.
MissionSquare's head of research will highlight the institute's commitment to supporting research in key public sector workforce areas, including Financial Health and Wellness, Retirement and Workplace Benefits, and State and Local Government Excellence. Attendees will learn about preselected research topics, available data, and survey resources along with funded research opportunities.
In the marketplace, money serves as a utilitarian tool for economic exchange, but when it enters the home, it takes on different social and cultural meanings based on its source, earner, and allocation. In today’s digital world, online platforms enable the commodification of previously non-economic household items and activities, introducing new forms of money with distinct meanings. This study draws on Zelizer's "special monies" model to explore this process among Turkish housewives (THWs) using digital secondhand marketplaces (DSMs). Through thirteen in-depth interviews, the research examines how these women transform their culturally designated domain—the home—into a source of income and perceived empowerment, a phenomenon described as the "commodification of homes." The study introduces the concept of "upgrade money" for this income, which is used to enhance the social standing of their home, children, and themselves without directly challenging socio-cultural norms. Although often considered an undervalued domestic currency, upgrade money empowers THWs by shifting their roles from "cashless money managers" to "upgrade money owners." This paper provides qualitative evidence of culturally recognized paths to perceived empowerment for women in constrained contexts.
Homeownership is often referred to as, "the American Dream." However, rising cost of homeownership may restrict some households ability to purchase a home. Given the cultural significance of owning a home in America, this study seeks to understand the relationship between homeownership and financial satisfaction using data from the 2022 wave of the Survery of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED). If homeownership positively influences financial satisfaction, it is possible that homeownership may lead to improvements in financial and overall wellbeing. This study provides a nuanced examination of the factors influencing financial satisfaction, focusing on home ownership, mortgage status, financial literacy, financial stress, financial behaviors, and socio-demographic characteristics. By leveraging established frameworks like the Life Cycle Hyptohesis (LCH), Bhevioral Life Cycle Hypothesis (BLCH), and the Joo and Grable Financial Satisfaction Framework, the study situates itself within the broader literature on financial well-being and adds depth to the undersrtanding of financial satisfaction determinants in the United States.
Using the weighted cross-sectional data from 2019 to 2022 Understanding American Study (UAS) different waives, this study investigates the association between U.S. household’s homeowner’s decisions and financial well-being by analyzing the moderating role of financial literacy. With the help of Ordinary least squares (OLS), we found that households who own homes freely without mortgages and have homeowner insurance are significantly and positively associated with households’ financial well-being. Further, we analyzed the moderating role of households’ financial literacy. We found a strong positive association between medium to high financial literacy after interacting with households who own homes with homeowners’ insurance on the household’s financial well-being. This suggests that financial literacy moderates households’ financial well-being when predicting various impacts on homeowners’ insurance decisions. We also found some heteroscedasticity problems, but with the help of bootstrapping and Robust Variance Covariance Estimates, we solved the heteroscedasticity problem and found consistent results with our original OLS model. This study also has implications for academicians, financial planners, and policymakers. Policymakers can use this study to incentivize homeowners’ insurance among mortgage-free households and improve mortgage and loan programs by adding financial literacy as a module. This paper should help academician base their discussion on the financial well-being of households, and financial planners can use this paper to examine clients’ demographics and socioeconomic differences and how these differences affect their financial well-being.
This research examines how cultural values predict financial health, focusing on two dimensions: financial security (the ability to manage financial shocks) and financial control (confidence in day-to-day financial management). Using data from Gallup's 2018 Financial Health Survey and the Global Preferences Survey across ten countries, the study explores cultural factors, such as patience, risk-taking, reciprocity, altruism, and trust, alongside demographic factors like age, education, income, and employment. A multilevel regression model enables an analysis of how these elements contribute to financial health outcomes. Results show that patience plays a crucial role in financial security and control, as individuals with greater patience tend to engage in stable, long-term financial planning. Conversely, a propensity for risk-taking is associated with less financial security, potentially due to impulsive financial choices that may hinder long-term security. Positive reciprocity supports financial control, whereas altruism, by focusing on others' needs, slightly diminishes personal financial security and control. The results highlight the need for financial education programs that encourage long-term planning and risk awareness, as well as policies that integrate cultural values and demographic insights. These tailored interventions can improve financial health across diverse populations, equipping individuals to face financial challenges effectively.
Results from a study in the United States with a primarily Catholic population show that there are indeed two discernible forms of religiosity (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic), and both constructs were shown to be independent from spirituality. Furthermore, intrinsic religiosity was shown to negatively influence materialism, while extrinsic religiosity was shown to positively influence materialism and community connectedness. Spirituality negatively influenced materialism and positively influenced life satisfaction. Finally, materialism negatively influenced community connectedness but not life satisfaction while the latter two constructs were shown to be strongly positively correlated. Implications for understanding human values as well as future research questions are also discussed.
This study examines the relationship between human values and saving behavior and analyzes the concepts of personal and cultural values. Drawing from a globally representative sample, we utilized data from the seventh wave of the World Values Survey (2017–2020) and Hofstede Insights (2022), encompassing 67,278 respondents across 48 countries. Two analytical steps were employed: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to ensure that the selected items accurately measured personal values and a multilevel logit regression to identify associations between personal (individual level) and cultural (country level) values and saving behavior. Based on the Functional Theory of Values, our findings reveal that individuals with personal values of personal orientation and survival needs tend to save more money, while those with personal values of social orientation and thriving needs are less likely to save. At the cultural level, people in individualistic societies save more, whereas those living in countries with high uncertainty avoidance tend to save less.
