What does vaccine hesitancy in Israel mean for the United States? Michal Grinstein-Weiss was interviewed by The Times on SPI’s Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 survey and how vaccine hesitancy in minority populations in Israel reflect many of the same characteristics of minority groups in the United States.
Tag: Michal Grinstein-Weiss
Women can’t be stopped: Applying resiliency of pandemic struggles to acquire new, high-quality job opportunities
International Women’s Day marks one year since the COVID-19 crisis began. Over the past year, the pandemic drastically cut women from the workforce in the United States and beyond. However, despite all of this, there is a chance for a new opportunity. Women around the world have an opportunity now to apply their resiliency to acquire new skills and re-enter the workforce in industries where they have been historically under-represented.
The first city in the world to have all its population vaccinated against corona (Links to an external site)
Interview with SPI director, Michal Grinstein-Weiss in Hebrew based on the Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 Survey in Israel. A return to almost-normalcy relies on the vast majority of Israelis over age 50 getting vaccinated for COVID-19, but it isn’t happening. New studies explain who isn’t getting the shot, and why.
There are three groups of Israelis who fear the vaccine. How can we change the image? (Links to an external site)
Interview with SPI director, Michal Grinstein-Weiss in Hebrew based on the Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 Survey in Israel. A return to almost-normalcy relies on the vast majority of Israelis over age 50 getting vaccinated for COVID-19, but it isn’t happening. New studies explain who isn’t getting the shot, and why.
Hundreds of Thousands of Israelis Have Said No to the COVID-19 Vaccine: Why Are They Waiting? (Links to an external site)
Interview with SPI director, Michal Grinstein-Weiss based on the Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 Survey in Israel. A return to almost-normalcy relies on the vast majority of Israelis over age 50 getting vaccinated for COVID-19, but it isn’t happening. New studies explain who isn’t getting the shot, and why
Channel Kan 11 interviews Michal Grinstein-Weiss about the vaccine in Israel (Links to an external site)
SPI director, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, was interviewed by Kan 11 about findings from the Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 Survey in Israel related to the vaccine.
The Challenge of Living Together: Can the Coronavirus Be an Opportunity?
This event has passed. Watch a recording. Michal Granstein-Weiss, director of SPI, and Avital Blonder, founder and CEO of Jindas Association for Urban Urban Renewal, presented at 12:30 p.m. (CT) on January 25, 2021, part of the Shared Israeliness and Social Solidarity lecture series presented by Beit Keinan and the Initiative for Shared Israeliness at the […]
Study: Women with young kids vanishing from the workforce in Israel (Links to an external site)
Director, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, was interviewed by i24News.
A Message from the Director
As we are opening a near year, we are also experiencing the tragedy of the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It was a sad day in our nation’s history and highlights the ever-widening divisions within the country. Despite the shocking and unprecedented moment in American history, Congressional leaders were undeterred and […]
Housing inequality gets worse as the COVID-19 pandemic is prolonged (Links to an external site)
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Housing Instability during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Stable and adequate housing is critical in the midst of a pandemic; without housing, individuals and families cannot shelter in place to prevent the spread of disease. Understanding and combating housing hardships in vulnerable populations is therefore essential to a sound public health response. This study aims to explore the pandemic’s disproportionate impacts on housing-related […]
Who relocates, where do they move, and why?
The lack of socioeconomic mobility among marginalized populations leads to the concentration of poverty, a long-standing issue in American cities. Empirical studies on neighborhood effects have found that poverty concentration adversely affects the socioeconomic mobility of residents—associated with their economic well-being, employment, education, health, and safety—in lower-income neighborhoods. Through a variety of neighborhood revitalization projects, […]
COVID-19 Educational Inequities: Shining a Light on Disparities in a Graduate School of Social Work
Despite its name, the Housing Choice Voucher (or Section 8) program does not always offer families much choice in where to live. Jenna Hampton, SPI practicum student, calls to expand the choices available to families who want the best for themselves and their children in an editorial with Community Builders Network in St. Louis.
Working Parents in COVID-19: The Impact and the Policy Response
Michal Grinstein-Weiss, director of the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis (SPI), and Nisha Patel, senior fellow at SPI, spoke on a panel hosted by the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences on Oct. 29, 2020 about the impact of COVID-19 on working families, including original research from the Socioeconomic Impacts […]
Employee financial wellness programs: Opportunities to promote financial inclusion?
Findings suggest that these services are reaching a population that experiences financial exclusion, though evidence is mixed concerning how these services help workers with LMI resolve key financial challenges. Community collaboration focused on employee financial wellness presents opportunities to advocate for higher wages and better benefits.
Employee financial wellness programs: Promising new benefit for frontline workers?
Availability of different EFWP benefits ranged from 11 to 15% and over a third of workers were unaware of whether their employer offered an EFWP. Experiencing financial difficulties predicted both EFWP awareness and use suggesting that employers should take time to assess employees’ specific financial challenges to select benefits. Yet, use of EFWPs by LMI workers may suggest the need for better compensation and work conditions.
Coping with COVID-19: Implications of Differences in Resilience across Racial Groups for Mental Health and Well-being
Data obtained from the Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 Survey indicate that, despite extreme income and health disparities before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, Black and Hispanic people remain more resilient and optimistic than their white counterparts.
Grinstein-Weiss and Ferris receive Washington University’s Outstanding Faculty & Staff Mentor Award
Michal Grinstein-Weiss, director of the Social Policy Institute, and Dan Ferris, director of policy and planning at the Social Policy Institute, were selected out of nearly 100 nominations as recipients of the 2020 Washington University Outstanding Faculty Mentor and Staff Mentor Awards. Awarded by the university’s Graduate Student Senate, students from all of WashU’s schools nominated […]
Material hardship among lower-income households: The role of liquid assets and place
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) provides substantial financial support to low-income workers, yet around a quarter of EITC payments are estimated to be erroneous or fraudulent. Beginning in 2017, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 requires the Internal Revenue Service to spend additional time processing early EITC claims, delaying the issuance of tax refunds. Leveraging unique data, we investigate how delayed tax refunds affected the experience of hardship and unsecured debt among EITC recipients. We find that early filers experienced increased food insecurity relative to later filers after the implementation of the refund delay.
Financial counseling for front-line workers: a pilot study of engagement and outcomes
Although financial counseling has been studied in community-based settings, programs offered in the workplace are understudied and yet may aid low- to moderate income employees in improving their financial situations. This study examines workers’ engagement in and associated credit outcomes from an employer-based financial counseling program in the New York City area. Findings suggest that participants engaged equally in services except for older and non-English speaking workers, who had lower levels of digital engagement. In-person engagement in services was minimal. Credit score improvements were modest, but greater for workers who had
scores in the lowest quartile at baseline. These credit score increases may be due to the reduction of delinquent accounts for workers with the lowest baseline scores.
Employee financial wellness programs: promising new benefit for frontline workers?
Interest among employers is growing in Employee financial wellness programs (EFWPs), a new type of benefit to address financial stress among employees. EFWPs benefits include financial counseling, small-dollar loans, and savings programs that address employees’ non-retirement financial needs. Little evidence exists concerning the availability and use of and outcomes associated with EFWPs, especially among low- and moderate-income (LMI) workers who may be in greatest need of these benefits. We present findings concerning awareness and use of EFWPs from a national survey of LMI workers (N=16,650). Availability of different EFWP benefits ranged from 11 to 15% and over a third of workers were unaware of whether their employer offered an EFWP. Experiencing financial difficulties predicted both EFWP awareness and use suggesting that employers take time to assess employees’ specific financial challenges to select benefits. Yet use of EFWPs by LMI workers may suggest the need for better compensation and work conditions.
Tax-time saving and the earned income tax credit: results from online field and survey experiments
Tax refunds are an opportunity for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients to build emergency savings. Randomly assigned behavioral interventions in 2015 and 2016 have statistically significant impacts on refund saving take-up and amounts among EITC recipients who filed their taxes online. From a survey experiment, we also find that EITC recipients have a 49 percent and 59 percent increased likelihood of deferring 20 percent of their refunds for six months when hypothetically offered 25 and 50 percent savings matches (p < .001), respectively. These findings can inform policy development related to encouraging emergency saving at tax time.
Promoting public retirement savings accounts during tax filing: evidence from a field experiment
Many U.S. households—especially those with low- to moderate-incomes (LMI)—struggle to save for retirement. To address this issue, the Department of the Treasury launched myRA, a no-fee retirement account designed primarily to help people who lacked access to employer-sponsored plans build retirement savings. In this paper, we report findings from two myRA-focused field experiments, both of which were administered to well over 100,000 LMI online tax filers before and during the 2016 tax season. The first experiment involved sending one of three different myRA-focused email messages to tax filers immediately prior to tax season, and the second experiment involved incorporating myRA-focused messages and choice architecture directly into an online tax filing platform. Messages were chosen to address different barriers to retirement savings LMI households may face. We find that, though the general level of interest in myRA was very low in this population, interest and enrollment in myRA depends heavily on the way in which the benefits of the accounts are framed. Results from both experiments indicate that messages emphasizing the possibility of receiving a larger refund in the future were the most effective at increasing interest in myRA, while messages focused around the simplicity and ease of use of the accounts were less effective. We also conduct several subsample analyses to investigate the extent to which these effects differed by key household characteristics.
The impact of tax refund delays on the experience of hardship and unsecured debt
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) provides substantial financial support to low-income workers, yet around a quarter of EITC payments are estimated to be erroneous or fraudulent. Beginning in 2017, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 requires the Internal Revenue Service to spend additional time processing early EITC claims, delaying the issuance of tax refunds. Leveraging unique data, we investigate how delayed tax refunds affected the experience of hardship and unsecured debt among EITC recipients. We find that early filers experienced increased food insecurity relative to later filers after the implementation of the refund delay.
Using financial tips to guide debt repayment: experimental evidence from low-and moderate-income tax filers
Much of the literature on household finances tends to focus on discrete or relatively objective measures like savings, debt, economic mobility, and there has been a lack of research on holistic measures of financial well-being. This gap is due in part to the absence of a common understanding of how to define and measure financial well-being; a gap that was recently addressed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s development of a financial well-being scale. However, the research on this scale is still scarce and little is known about how financial well-being evolves over time. To that end, this paper uses a two-wave survey of low- and moderate-income tax filers to present the first longitudinal analysis of the CFPB’s financial well-being scale. Using a combination of descriptive analysis, OLS regression, and fixed effects panel regression, we assess (1) the stability of financial well-being over a six-month period; (2) the extent to which household characteristics predict volatility in financial well-being; and (3) the relationship between the experience of adverse financial events, including financial shocks and material hardships, and financial well-being. We find that financial well-being scores are extremely stable over the short-term, and that household characteristics are generally not strong predictors of financial well-being changes. We also find that, while adverse financial events like the loss of a job are significantly associated with declines in financial well-being, these changes are not large. These findings have implications for researchers and practitioners interested in using the financial well-being scale in program and policy evaluations.
Improving the Take-Up of Homecare Services Among Holocaust Survivors in a Jewish Charitable Organization
This research brief is part of a series by the Social Impact Nudgeathon initiative. This initiative incorporated insights from behavioral economics into the design and delivery of social welfare programs. Developed through a partnership between the Joint Distribution Committee in Israel (JDC-Israel) and the Social Policy Institute (SPI) at Washington University in St. Louis, this initiative is among the first of its kind to launch in Israel. […]
Household Savings Decisions in Israel’s Child Savings Program: The Role of Demographic, Financial, and Intrinsic Factors
Israel’s Child Development Account (CDA) program, the Savings for Every Child Program (SECP), is universal and automatically enrolls all children under the age of 18, depositing approximately $14 into their accounts every month. Parents can transfer an additional monthly $14 into these long-term savings accounts and can choose an investment vehicle for their children’s deposits. […]
Assessing the Short-Term Stability of Financial Well-Being in Low- and Moderate-Income Households
Much of the literature on household finances tends to focus on discrete or relatively objective measures like savings, debt, economic mobility, and there has been a lack of research on holistic measures of financial well-being. This gap is due in part to the absence of a common understanding of how to define and measure financial well-being; a gap that was recently addressed […]
Does Savings Affect Participation in the Gig Economy? Evidence from a Tax Refund Field Experiment
This paper investigates how saving the federal tax refund affects gig economy participation for low-income online tax filers in the six months following tax filing. Using longitudinal survey and administrative data, we leverage random assignment in a unique refund savings experiment as an instrument for refund savings. We find significant heterogeneity in estimated effects that are consistent […]
Nothing to Show for It: Non-Degreed Debt and the Financial Circumstances Associated with It
The number of individuals with student loan debt who do not earn their degrees is on the rise; nevertheless, there is little research that demonstrates the financial conditions and circumstances of these individuals. We address this knowledge gap by comparing the financial outcomes of student debt-holders who started college but did not earn a degree—those […]
Financial Well-being: Measuring Financial Perceptions and Experiences in Low- and Moderate- Income Households (Links to an external site)
Abstract As the gig economy plays an increasingly important role in the labor market, there is a need to understand the economic factors that influence participation in this sector. In this paper, we investigate how saving the federal tax refund affects gig economy participation for low-income online tax filers in the six months following tax […]
Financial wellness programs in the workplace: Employer motivations and experiences
Employee financial wellness programs (EFWPs) are a benefit innovation that promise to address the financial challenges of employees while also benefiting employers. Results from a mixed-methods study of employers suggest early adopters appear to be motivated primarily by a desire to help employees. EFWP success may depend on promotion by organizational champions. Programs that accommodate […]
The Saving for Every Child Program in Israel: an overview of a universal asset-building policy
In 2017, the Israeli government implemented a universal child development account programme – the Saving for Every Child Program (SECP) – which establishes a personal savings account for every Israeli child and provides monthly deposits until the child turns 18. The SECP has the potential to provide substantial assets when children reach adulthood, but the […]
Enrollment and participation in a universal child savings program: Evidence from the rollout of Israel’s National Program
Child Development Accounts (CDAs) are savings or investment accounts typically opened at birth or during a child’s early years with the aim of promoting savings and asset accumulation for child development purposes, such as post-secondary education or homeownership. Beginning in January of 2017, the Israeli government established a universal CDA program called the Saving for […]
Assessing the short-term stability of financial well-being in low- and moderate-income households
Sun, S., Roll, S. P., Kondratjeva, O., Bufe, S., & Grinstein-Weiss, M. (2019, March). Assessing the Short-Term Stability of Financial Well-Being in Low- and Moderate-Income Households. (SPI Research Brief No. 19-01). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Social Policy Institute.
How do changing financial circumstances relate to financial well-being? Evidence from a national survey
Bufe, S., Sun, S., Roll, S. P., Kondratjeva, O., & Grinstein-Weiss, M. (2019, March). How do Changing Financial Circumstances Relate to Financial Well-Being? Evidence from a National Survey. (SPI Research Brief No. 19-02). St. Louis, MO: Washington Univer¬sity, Social Policy Institute.
The View from Here 1.23.19 (Links to an external site)
Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Associate Dean for Policy Initiatives and professor at the Brown School, recently represented Washington University in St. Louis at the University Social Responsibility Summit, co-hosted by the University of Haifa, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Niemeyer, K.
Financial well-being in low- and moderate-income households: How does it compare to the general population?
Sun, S., Kondratjeva, O., Roll, S. P., Despard, M., & Grinstein-Weiss, M. (2018, December). Financial well-being in low- and moderate-income households: How does it compare to the general population? (SPI Research Brief No. 18-03). St. Louis, MO: Washington Univer¬sity, Social Policy Institute.
Can Precommitment Increase Savings Deposits? Evidence from a Tax Time Field Experiment (Links to an external site)
This work aims to encourage the saving of the tax refund through an experiment embedding behavioral interventions in a tax filing platform serving almost a million low- and moderate-income households.
Tax-Time Saving Among EITC Recipients: Results of a Large-Scale Experiment Informed by Behavioral Economics (Links to an external site)
Low- and moderate-income (LMI) households lack sufficient liquid assets to address unexpected emergencies and dips in income (McKernan, Ratcliffe, & Vinopal, 2009; Pew Charitable Trusts, 2015). Receiving tax refunds is an opportunity for recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to build emergency savings to help cope with these financial shocks.
The Impact of the Gig-Economy on Financial Hardship (Links to an external site)
On-demand peer-to-peer services (‘gigs’) coordinated by platforms like Uber, allow workers to decide for themselves when and how much to work. This flexible work arrangement offers workers granular control over their earnings.
The Effect of Health Insurance on Home Payment Delinquency: Evidence from ACA Marketplace Subsidies
Gallagher, E., Gopalan, R., & Grinstein-Weiss, M. (2018). The Effect of Health Insurance on Home Payment Delinquency: Evidence from ACA Marketplace Subsidies. Journal of Public Economics. 172(1), 67-83.
The state of state EITCs: An overview and their implications for low- and moderate-income households
The success of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has prompted numerous states to develop and administer their own EITC programs. This brief presents the results of analyses that used data from a large sample of low- and moderate-income households to learn more about the relationship between state and federal EITCs as well as […]
Refund to Savings 2015–2016: Field experiments to promote tax-time saving in low-and moderate-income households
Roll, S. P., Davison, G., Grinstein-Weiss, M., Despard, M. R., & Bufe, S. (2018). Refund to Savings 2015–2016: Field experiments to promote tax-time saving in low- and moderate-income households (CSD Research Report No. 18-28). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development.
A toolkit for expanding financial capability at tax time
This work expands upon The Volunteer Income Tax Preparer’s Toolkit: Showing Clients Why Tax Time is the Right Time to Save, a 2015 Toolkit by the Center for Social Development (CSD). This new offering presents the current evidence underpinning various tax-time efforts to expand financial capability among LMI households. It includes sections on creating a […]
Effects of a tax-time savings experiment on material and health care hardship among low-income filers
Material and health care hardship is common among households with low incomes and is associated with a host of adverse outcomes but can be mitigated with having savings. The authors assessed the effects of online tax-time savings interventions informed by behavioral economics on hardship among a sample of low- and moderate-income tax filers (N = 4,738). The […]
Encouraging Tax‐Time Savings With A Low‐Touch, Large‐Scale Intervention: Evidence From The Refund To Savings Experiment
Low‐ and moderate‐income households often struggle to save, but the annual tax refund represents a prime opportunity for these households to save toward their financial goals or build their emergency savings. This paper presents the results of a randomized, controlled experiment embedded in a free tax‐preparation product offered in 2013 to low‐ and moderate‐income households. […]
Effects of a randomized tax-time savings intervention on savings account ownership among low- and moderate-income households
Being unbanked makes it difficult for low and moderate-income (LMI) households to manage finances, save, and access credit. We assessed effects of an online tax-time savings intervention on savings account openings in the 6 months following tax filing among a sample of4,692 LMI tax filers. Treatment group participants had 60% greater odds of opening a […]
The mediating role of assets in explaining hardship risk among households experiencing financial shocks
Material hardship is common among low- and moderate-income (LMI) households. Without liquid financial assets, these households are more likely to experience hardship in the face of financial shocks—large and unexpected expenses or dips in income. Authors hypothesized that shocks have a direct effect on hardship, and that liquid financial assets partially mediate the relationship between […]
Financial shocks, liquid assets, and material hardship in low- and moderate-income households: Differences by race
Low- and moderate-income (LMI) households need financial assets to help cope with income and expenditure shocks. Prior research identifies racial differences in wealth and wealth effects. We examined whether these gaps and effects exist for liquid financial assets. Using group invariance tests in structural equation modeling, we assessed the relationship between financial shocks and material […]