Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Housing Instability During the COVID-19 Pandemic: the Role of Assets and Income Shocks.

Stable and adequate housing is critical to sound public health responses in the midst of a pandemic. This study explores the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on housing-related hardships across racial/ethnic groups in the USA as well as the extent to which these disparities are mediated by households' broader economic circumstances, which we operationalized in terms of prepandemic liquid assets and pandemic-related income losses. Using a longitudinal national survey with more than 23,000 responses, we found that Black and Hispanic respondents were more vulnerable to housing-related hardships during the pandemic than white respondents. These impacts were particularly pronounced in low- and moderate-income households. We found that liquid assets acted as a strong mediator of the housing hardship disparities between white and Black/Hispanic households. Our findings imply that housing became less stable for minority groups as a result of the pandemic, particularly those households with limited liquid assets. Such housing-related disparities demonstrate the need for policies and practices that target support to economically marginalized groups and families of color in particular.

Predictors of and barriers to receipt of advance premium tax credits.

OBJECTIVES: The Advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC) is designed to remedy lack of health insurance due to cost; however, approximately 30 million Americans remain without health insurance and millions of households leave billions in tax credits unclaimed each year. A prerequisite of APTC is to file one's taxes; however, few studies have examined tax filing and APTC jointly. This study examined the relationship between tax filing and applying for APTC, as well as perceived barriers to and sociodemographic characteristics associated with applying for the APTC. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive study. METHODS: Researchers surveyed 372 Marketplace-insured members who were eligible for APTC. RESULTS: Most of the sample filed personal taxes in 2019 and planned to file taxes in 2020, yet only 23% applied for the APTC in 2019, and 26.3% were planning to apply in 2020. Most commonly, respondents were not going to apply because they believed they were not eligible (53.5%), they did not know about the APTC (15.8%), and they did not know whether they were eligible (9.9%). Logistic regression modeling found that employment, income, and race were significantly associated with applying for the APTC. CONCLUSIONS: Barriers to applying for the APTC were unrelated to tax filing and were specific to a lack of knowledge about the APTC and eligibility. These results indicate the need to build knowledge and awareness of the APTC and eligibility and to target groups least likely to apply. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Financial Shocks and Financial Well-Being: What Builds Resiliency in Lower-Income Households?

Households in the U.S. regularly experience unexpected negative income or expense shocks, and low- and moderate-income households experience these shocks at disproportionately high rates. Relatively little is known about the impact these shocks have on households' subjective sense of financial well-being, and how access to different types of liquidity (e.g., liquid assets, credit cards, social resources, and income flows) can mitigate the impact of these shocks on subjective financial well-being. To address these gaps in the literature, this paper uses data from a two-wave survey administered to 3,911 low- and moderate-income tax filers in 2018. Applying a difference-in-difference analysis, we find that the experience of an income shock between survey waves was associated with a large decline in subjective financial well-being, while the experience of an expense shock was associated with a more modest decline. Relatively liquidity-constrained households tended to be more negatively impacted by shocks than their counterparts, though not all sources of liquidity were equally as effective in buffering households against shocks. The findings of this paper point to the need for policymakers and program administrators to develop tools that can facilitate access to different types of liquidity to offset different financial risks for households.

Effects of an Individual Development Account Program on Retirement Saving: Follow-up Evidence From a Randomized Experiment.

We examine the 10-year follow-up effects on retirement saving of an individual development account (IDA) program using data from a randomized experiment that ran from 1998 to 2003 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The IDA program included financial education, encouragement to save, and matching funds for several qualified uses of the saving, including contributions to retirement accounts. The results indicate that as of 2009, 6 years after the program ended, the IDA program had no impact on the propensity to hold a retirement account, the account balance, or the sufficiency of retirement balances to meet retirement expenses.

Family assets and child outcomes: evidence and directions.

For poor families, the possession of assets--savings accounts, homes, and the like--has the potential not only to relieve some of the stress of living in poverty but also to make a better future seem like a real possibility. If children in families that own certain assets fare better than children in families without them, then helping poor families build those assets would be an effective strategy for two-generation programs. Indeed, write Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Trina Williams Shanks, and Sondra Beverly, plenty of evidence shows that assets are connected to positive outcomes for poor children. For example, young people who have any college savings at all, even a very small amount, are more likely to go to college; children in households with assets score higher on standardized achievement tests; and children of homeowners experience fewer behavioral problems. But this evidence comes from longitudinal data sets and is therefore correlational. Looking for causal relationships, the authors examine the results of experimental programs that opened various types of savings accounts for poor people and matched their contributions. Several of these trials included a control group that did not receive a savings account, making it possible to attribute any positive outcomes directly to the savings accounts rather than to their owners' personal characteristics. These programs dispelled the myth that poor people can't save; participants were generally able to accumulate savings. It's too early to tell, however, whether assets and asset-building programs have long-term effects on children's wellbeing, though one experiment found positive impacts on disadvantaged children's social-emotional development at age four. The most promising programs share several features: they are opened early in life; they are opened automatically, with no action required from the recipients; and they come with an initial deposit.

Gender and ethnic differences in formal and informal help seeking among Israeli adolescents.

This study examines the willingness of Jewish and Arab Israeli adolescents to look for help in times of distress and explores the factors that are associated with the willingness of these adolescents to look for help from formal vs. informal sources. The sample consisted of 6017 randomly selected respondents, 14-18 years old, attending secondary schools. Multiple regression analyses were used in order to explore what predicts formal vs. informal help seeking. Results indicate that satisfaction with school, family and friends, and ethnicity are all important predictors that are associated with the willingness of Israeli adolescents to ask for formal and informal help. The interaction between gender and ethnicity was also examined. The findings present the specific differences between formal and informal help seeking and are discussed in the Israeli context.