Every day, consumers interact with products that are necessary or make life function in more accessible and interesting ways - whether that’s the toys our children play with, the roads we drive on, or the smoke detectors that keep us safe. Consumers expect products to work as intended and to be tested to be safe and reliable. What most people may not realize is that many of the products and services they interact with are produced, and in some cases, regulated by safety standards. Standards play a vital role in setting product performance requirements, consumer warnings and messaging, and testing and certification protocols. Additionally, consumers, academics and others may be unaware of the standards development process in the United States and that they can participate in, and have a voice in, the development and implementation of the safety standards that impact their everyday lives.
The aims of this study were to determine whether financial knowledge is related to risk-taking behavior after controlling for a financial decision-maker’s degree of risk aversion and risk tolerance and to identify the variables that are most important when describing the amount of portfolio risk taken at the household level. It was determined that financial knowledge is positively related to the amount of risk taken by financial decision-makers in their portfolios. Additionally, financial knowledge was found to be inversely related to risk aversion but positively associated with risk tolerance. It was further determined that risk tolerance has the greatest effect in describing portfolio risk. Financial knowledge ranked second in importance, whereas, risk aversion was the least important in describing portfolio risk.
This study develops and evaluates a Retrieval-Augmented Generation Large Language Model (RAG-LLM) system to enhance investment decision-making among financial consumers in South Korea. By integrating Large Language Models with Retrieval-Augmented Generation techniques, the system provides personalized, data-driven investment advice tailored to individual risk profiles inferred from demographic and financial characteristics. Utilizing publicly available financial data and consumer behavior literature, the model retrieves relevant information and generates recommendations regarding asset selections. The system's performance is assessed using portfolio metrics like expected returns, risk levels, Sharpe ratios, and utility based on constructed mean-variance optimal portfolios, and compared against naive random selection and traditional LLM-based systems. Preliminary results indicate that the RAG-LLM significantly outperforms baseline models, leading to higher Sharpe ratios and utility with reduced risk. This approach enhances financial decision-making, particularly benefiting financially marginalized groups who lack access to traditional advisory services. The research underscores the potential of AI-driven solutions in promoting financial inclusion, reducing disparities in investment outcomes, and contributing to a more equitable financial ecosystem.
This study examines how personality traits and stock market expectations influence portfolio decisions among investors aged 50 and older during periods of market volatility. Using data from the 2018 and 2020 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, the research reveals associations between psychological characteristics and investment behavior during the COVID-19 market volatility. Drawing on the Meta-theoretic Model of Motivation and Personality, the study analyzes how elemental traits (Big Five personality characteristics) and compound traits (positive and negative affect) relate to stock market expectations and subsequent portfolio decisions. Results suggest that stock market expectations play a key role in connecting broader personality dispositions to investor behavior. The findings have important implications for financial practitioners, policymakers, and consumer advocates. Financial professionals can use these insights to identify clients who may be more prone to reactive decision-making during market uncertainty. Consumer protection policies can be enhanced by understanding which investors might be more vulnerable to potentially harmful portfolio adjustments. Additionally, the research informs how educational initiatives and financial technology can be tailored to support more effective consumer financial decision-making during periods of market volatility, particularly for older investors approaching or in retirement.
Focusing on the households enrolled in the WIC program, a particular federal food assistance program targeting at at-risk women, infants, and children, this study analyzed Nielsen consumer panel data and examined WIC-Nielsen participating households’ brand choice preference of their grocery shopping. The results suggest WIC-Nielsen participating households typically allocate less of their grocery shopping dollars on private label brand type stores than non WIC-Nielsen participating households.
People with the lowest socio-economic status, often ethnic minorities residing in impoverished neighborhoods, are disproportionately affected. Research studies employing a “bottom-up” approach offer excellent insights into the intersection of poverty and health. This research investigates the effectiveness of the Veggie Rx program by exploring participants’ sustained lifestyle changes and the dissemination of these new practices within their families and social networks 12 months after program completion. Despite the potential benefits of Veggie Rx, not everyone who participates in the program is able to make sustainable lifestyle changes. This is often due to various barriers, such as macroenvironment, socio-cultural environment, and patients’ internal factors, such as mental state and other health issues. By examining the lived experiences of individuals from underserviced communities, we can gain a deeper understanding of behavior change over time and assist health advocates in developing strategies to enhance community well-being.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), one of the few safety net programs universally available to low-income households, mandates work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs). SNAP work requirements have emerged as a significant point of contention in recent SNAP reauthorizations. Leveraging variation in work requirement exposure—based on recipient age and county-level waivers from 2014 through 2019—we examine how ABAWD work requirements affect household spending patterns. Analysis of NielsenIQ Consumer Panel data reveals that waiving SNAP work requirements for likely affected recipients increases total household spending by 7 percent and food expenditure by 6 percent, with more pronounced effects among households at or near poverty levels. Additionally, we find modest improvements in dietary quality, notably a 9 percent increase in fruit and vegetable consumption. While previous research finds that SNAP work requirements have minimal impact on labor supply, our findings suggest that SNAP work requirements may adversely affect the food security and nutritional quality of low-income households.
Consumer financial access has been measured through a wide range of financial services and products in the literature, while the psychometric properties of such measures are not clear. This study explores the dimensions underlying consumer financial access related to mainstream financial products and services in the United States. Using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), three factors of 14 financial services and products were extracted, explaining 52% of the cumulative variance. Results suggest categorizing financial products and services into three distinct components: basic banking services (two items: checking and savings accounts); advanced financial services (nine items: retirement accounts, Certificate of Deposits (CDs), investments, disability insurance, life insurance, bank loan, line of credit, financial counseling/coaching, and credit score); and mobile/online banking services (three items: mobile banking, transfer applications, and debit cards). When measuring and evaluating financial access, it is important to include a comprehensive list of financial services and products from these three categories. These findings have significant implications for research, practice, and policy._x000D_
Transgender Americans are a growing demographic with unique financial concerns. This study analyzes data from the “transpop survey”, the first national probability sample of transgender Americans. We use regression analysis to examine the financial situation of transgender people._x000D_ We find that transgender Americans are significantly more likely to display signs of financial vulnerability than the population as a whole - for example, struggling to meet everyday expenses and skipping a doctor's appointment for financial reasons. We also find that variation in financial outcomes within the transgender population, does not display the same gender patterns as within the population as a whole.
Consumers experiencing lower levels of intimate social support are often left to navigate the requirements of life using only the resources available to them. In at least some cases, those resources are insufficient to cope with the demands of life. Supportive services represent one external source of coping resources that an individual might employ to maintain well-being in the absence of intimate social support. In this study we argue that the use of services can be an effective coping resource for people experiencing a lower level of social support. Using data from 600 U.S. adults, we explore the use of services as a mediating role in the relationship between social support and well-being. We find that while the use of supportive services promotes greater well-being, people experiencing lower levels of intimate social support are not more (or less) likely to seek such services. We feel this finding represents opportunities in the design of services and the education of consumers as to the benefits of their use.
