Publications by Financial Literacy Center Researchers
FLC researchers have produced many publications and working papers available on rand.org. This page provides a chronological list of our other reports and papers.
Policy Briefs — summaries of our findings — are also available online.
Latest Policy Brief
How Well Do Americans Anticipate Their Health Care Expenses in Retirement? — December 11, 2012
Many retirees face out-of-pocket expenses for premiums, cost-sharing obligations, and items or services not covered by Medicare or supplemental health coverage. This study suggests that many retirees and near-retirees do not understand the magnitude and variability of their future out-of-pocket health care costs and may be unprepared to finance higher-than-typical expenditures.
2012
Retiree Out-of-Pocket Health Care Spending: A Study of Expert Views, Consumer Expectations, and Policy Implications — December 11, 2012
Suggests that many retirees and near-retirees do not understand the magnitude and variability of their future out-of-pocket health care costs and may be unprepared to finance higher-than-typical expenditures.
Can Games Build Financial Capability? Financial Entertainment: A Research Overview — December 10, 2012
Presents and discusses data on whether video games can increase the financial capability of millions of financially vulnerable Americans.
What Will My Account Really Be Worth? An Experiment on Exponential Growth Bias and Retirement Saving — April 2, 2012
Uses a large-scale field experiment to measure the effect of interventions designed to inform subjects about the mapping between current contributions and income in retirement on saving behavior.
Raising Awareness of Government Initiatives and Tax Time Savings Opportunities — March 13, 2012
Describes the financial literacy casual video game "Refund Rush" which raises awareness of and subtly promotes tax time savings opportunities.
Do Consumers Know How to Value Annuities? Complexity as a Barrier to Annuitization — March 9, 2012
Seeks to explain the limited demand for payout annuities.
Barriers to Immigrant Use of Financial Services: The Role of Language Skills, U.S. Experience, and Return Migration Expectations — March 9, 2012
Investigates barriers to the use of financial services faced by immigrants and designs and evaluates new financial education materials targeted at immigrants.
2011
Optimal Financial Literacy and Saving for Retirement — December 20, 2011
Devises a model to generate cross-sectional differences in wealth-to-income profiles, which is necessary to assess which types of consumers would benefit the most by early investment in financial literacy and sophisticated investment products.
How to Improve Social Security Education: Retirement Plan Providers' Perspectives — December 5, 2011
Reveals retirement plan providers' ideas on improving Social Security education.
Testing Educational Tools to Demonstrate Returns to Work for Children Aging Out of the SSI-Disabled Children Program — December 5, 2011
Financial calculator developed and tested whether it could be a tool for determining the value of work for young Supplemental Security Income recipients.
Financial Advisors' Role in Influencing Social Security Claiming — December 5, 2011
Survey of professional financial advisors to gain insight on what they say to their clients about Social Security.
The Geography of Financial Literacy — December 5, 2011
Explores how well equipped today's households are to make complex financial decisions in the face of often high-cost and high-risk financial instruments.
Encouraging New Hires to Save for Retirement — December 5, 2011
Examines the impact of employer-provided financial education for newly hired workers on contributions to voluntary retirement savings plans.
Framing Effects and Expected Social Security Claiming Behavior — May 18, 2011
This paper shows that individual intentions with regard to Social Security claiming ages are sensitive to how the early versus late claiming decision is framed.
2010
The Returns to Work for Children Leaving the SSI-Disabled Children Program — November 14, 2010
Examines the financial incentives/disincentives of working for young adults on the Supplemental Security Income program.
Better Financial Decision Making among Low-Income and Minority Groups — November 14, 2010
Examines how Doorways to Dreams Fund is working to develop and test video games attractive to low-income and minority adults that will provide training in critical financial skills to improve financial decision-making.
An Empirical Analysis of 401(k) Loan Defaults — November 14, 2010
Investigates the determinants of defaults on 401(k) loans, using a rich dataset of over 100,000 participants who terminate employment with a plan loan outstanding.
The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions — November 14, 2010
Examines the effects of receiving information about the retirement savings decisions of one's peers.
Framing Effects and Social Security Claiming Behavior — November 13, 2010
Applies the concept of framing to when Americans claim Social Security benefits.
Improving the Social Security Statement — November 12, 2010
Uses data from the Health and Retirement Study to gauge near-retirees' ability to predict their Social Security retirement benefits both before and after the Social Security Statement began universal distribution to all near-retirees in 1995.
Five Steps to Planning Success — November 12, 2010
Investigates the effectiveness of both videos and narratives in improving people's understanding of five basic concepts in financial planning.
What Do People Know About Social Security? — November 12, 2010
Summarizes survey results about how much people know about Social Security and the public's attitudes toward the system.
Evaluating Workplace Education for New Hires — November 12, 2010
Examines how employer-provided financial education for newly hired workers affects participation in retirement savings plans.
Federal Financial and Economic Literacy Education Programs, 2009 — May 17, 2010
Financial literacy has become increasingly important as individuals and families have become more responsible for their own financial well-being. In late 2009, a survey was conducted of 21 federal agencies, who reported offering 56 financial and economic literacy education programs. Using this survey data, the authors of this report inventory these programs' purpose, content, delivery formats, target audience, and evaluation goals and method.
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