nep-fle New Economics Papers
on Financial Literacy and Education
Issue of 2019‒08‒26
three papers chosen by



  1. The College Wealth Divide: Education and Inequality in America, 1956-2016 By Alina K. Bartscher; Moritz Kuhn; Moritz Schularick
  2. Blockchain as a Decentralized Mechanism for Financial Inclusion and Economic Mobility By John P. Conley
  3. Temporarily Vulnerable Consumers in a Bank Services Setting - à paraître. By Abdelmajid Amine; Shérazade Gatfaoui

  1. By: Alina K. Bartscher; Moritz Kuhn; Moritz Schularick
    Abstract: Using new long-run microdata, this paper studies wealth and income trends of college and non-college households in the United States since 1956. We document the emergence of a substantial college wealth premium since the 1980s, which is considerably larger than the college income premium. Over the past four decades, the wealth of American households with a college-educated head has tripled. By contrast, the wealth of non-college households has barely grown in real terms over the same period. Part of the rising wealth gap can be traced back to systematic portfolio differences between college and non-college households that give rise to different exposures to asset price changes. Non-college households have a lower exposure to the equity market and have profited much less from the recent surge in the stock market. We also discuss the importance of financial literacy and business ownership for the increase in wealth inequality between college and non-college households.
    Keywords: wealth, inequality, education, college wealth premium
    JEL: I24 E21 D31
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7726&r=all
  2. By: John P. Conley (Vanderbilt University)
    Abstract: The World Bank's mission is to end extreme poverty and increase shared prosperity. A key driver for this is increasing financial and social inclusion, especially for poor and marginalized populations. Essential first steps to achieving these goals are providing providing official identities to the estimated one billion or more displaced and impoverished people who do not at present possess them, and bringing the even larger number of unbanked and under-banked out of the shadow economy and into the formal sector. This paper explores how blockchain fits in as a key enabling technology to achieve these goals while at the same time protecting the privacy and security of vulnerable populations. We also discuss the role blockchain could play in empowering people to obtain fair value for their skills and efforts, even in environments with weak or corrupt institutions.
    Keywords: Blockchain, Financial Inclusion, Economic Mobility, KYC, AML, Fintech, Decentralized Identity, Biometrics, Privacy, Distributed Business Processes, Smart Cities, IoT, Civil Society
    JEL: G2 O3
    Date: 2019–08–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:van:wpaper:vuecon-sub-19-00015&r=all
  3. By: Abdelmajid Amine (IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12); Shérazade Gatfaoui (IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12)
    Abstract: Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore how do temporarily vulnerable customers and their bank advisors cope with incidents met over the course of their service relationships. Design/methodology/approach-A qualitative design based on ten cases studies, involving interviews with both sides of the dyad (client-bank advisor) as well as internal secondary data from the bank, is conducted. Findings-The findings show that the two sides of the dyad span a gradation of coping strategies that are enacted to co-create solutions to incidents encountered. Thus, temporarily vulnerable consumers turn out to be non-passive in their asymmetrical relationship with advisors and deploy residual resources to maintain their inclusion within the banking system. Research implications-The results enrich our knowledge on consumers' vulnerability insofar as we extend the transformative service literature to temporarily vulnerable clients who project themselves beyond the crisis period and consider ensuring satisfactory levels of their well-being. Practical implications-The findings suggest that banks can refine their categorization of temporary vulnerable clients by identifying those that remain profitable and for which an effort is worth, and those in whom it is appropriate to disinvest. They also prompt the banks to design supports to the advisors in managing increased stressful interactions with precarious customers. Social implications-To prevent the risk of slippage by or exclusion of the vulnerable customers who experience serious banking incidents, the paper points out the necessity to mobilize alternative levers from the public and associative spheres to allow these customers access to a minimum of banking services. Originality/value-As an early exploration of transient vulnerable clients, this research fuels our understanding of their capacity to consider co-creating, alongside bank advisors, solutions to the incidents met in a view of preserving their well-being and insuring their social and economic inclusion.
    Keywords: well- being,case study,Temporarily vulnerable customer,bank advisor,coping strategies,social inclusion
    Date: 2019–08–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02190068&r=all

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