Can the Poor Save?

Can the Poor Save?
Author :
Publisher : Transaction Publishers
Total Pages : 387
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780202363110
ISBN-13 : 0202363112
Rating : 4/5 (112 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Can the Poor Save? by : Mark Schreiner

Download or read book Can the Poor Save? written by Mark Schreiner and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-31 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many policymakers argue that the best poverty policy not only provides cash to the poor for subsistence but also incentives and structures that encourage long-term social and economic improvement. As part of this, they make the case for Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), a new policy proposal designed to help the poor save and to build assets. This book explores IDAs to determine their effectiveness. IDAs are matched savings accounts targeted on low-income, low-wealth individuals. Savings in IDAs are used for home ownership, post-secondary education, small business development, and other purposes. Do IDAs work? If they do, for whom? And does how an IDA is designed determine savings outcomes? This volume is the first analysis of matched savings by the poor to use data from monthly bank statements. It comes at a critical time, as debate rages over the merits of individual social security accounts. IDAs also respond to policy that is becoming more asset based and less inclusive of the poor. The authors argue for the efficacy of IDAs to counter this tendency. They find that while savings outcomes vary among participants, no characteristics (such as low income or public assistance) preclude saving. They examine effects of IDA design (the match rate, savings targets, and the use of automatic transfer) on savings results and analyze factors that influence varying rates of saving and spending over time. They conclude that financial education and other support services, though costly, improve savings performance. To address the issue of cost they suggest a two-tier system of IDA design, one with broad access and simple services and the other with targeted access and intensive services. Can the Poor Save? offers a wealth of lessons to those interested in saving and asset accumulation among the poor. It not only breaks new ground in the scientific study of savings behavior, but also offers concrete, evidence-based recommendations to improve policies designed to encourage the poor to save and how to make such policies more inclusive.


Can the Poor Save? Related Books

Can the Poor Save?
Language: en
Pages: 387
Authors: Mark Schreiner
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-12-31 - Publisher: Transaction Publishers

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many policymakers argue that the best poverty policy not only provides cash to the poor for subsistence but also incentives and structures that encourage long-t
How the Poor Can Save Capitalism
Language: en
Pages: 177
Authors: John Hope Bryant
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-06-02 - Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book has a simple message for business leaders: you help yourselves by helping the poor. Instead of feeling as if the economy is working against them, the
The Life You Can Save
Language: en
Pages: 242
Authors: Peter Singer
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010 - Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Argues that for the first time in history we're in a position to end extreme poverty throughout the world, both because of our unprecedented wealth and advances
Poor Economics
Language: en
Pages: 321
Authors: Abhijit V. Banerjee
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-03-27 - Publisher: PublicAffairs

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics upend the most common assumptions about how economics works in this gripping and disruptive portrait of how poor peo
Loving the Poor, Saving the Rich
Language: en
Pages: 304
Authors: Helen Rhee
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-11-01 - Publisher: Baker Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The issue of wealth and poverty and its relationship to Christian faith is as ancient as the New Testament and reaches even further back to the Hebrew Scripture