"If I don't have credit, I don't have anything": Perspectives on the credit scoring system among mothers with low incomes.

This mixed-methods study examines consumer perspectives on the credit scoring system drawn from in-depth interviews with 72 mothers with low incomes and national survey data from the National Financial Capability Study. Interviewees express strong awareness of credit scoring and a desire to have good credit. National survey data corroborate these findings, showing that most mothers with low incomes are knowledgeable about their credit scores. They know what behaviors improve credit standing and recognize the tradeoffs between present consumption and longer-run goals. They do not reject the credit scoring system's legitimacy and seek to work within this system to pursue their financial goals, despite obstacles to success. This evidence enriches our understanding of the perspectives and values that motivate consumer financial behaviors and highlights the systemic challenges to people's financial well-being that are embedded in a seemingly widely accepted credit scoring system.

"I Don't Like All Those Fees" Pragmatism About Financial Services Among Low-Income Parents.

Basic financial services facilitate people's ability to manage their finances, save, and receive payments from employers or the government. Drawing on survey data as well as qualitative interviews with 80 mothers with limited incomes, we find that parents take a pragmatic view and use a wide range of financial services to meet their needs including fintech, prepaid cards, and mobile phone-based solutions, as well as traditional banks. Mistrust in institutions is an important factor in shaping the services mothers avoid. Structural factors, like employers' payment methods, also play a role in financial service use. These low-income parents of young children are actively using a range of financial services, much broader than those provided by traditional banks. Many mothers engaged in complex financial management practices to receive income and pay their bills. This opens room for potentially costly errors and is, at least, taxing their cognitive bandwidth. Researchers must attend to the diverse set of financial services with which parents engage and investigate how this affects families' financial wellbeing and inclusion.

Flu and Finances: Influenza Outbreaks and Loan Defaults in US Cities, 2004-2012.

OBJECTIVES: We examined the association between influenza outbreaks in 83 metropolitan areas and credit card and mortgage defaults, as measured in quarterly zip code-level credit data over the period of 2004 to 2012. METHODS: We used ordinary least squares, fixed effects, and 2-stage least squares instrumental variables regression strategies to examine the relationship between influenza-related Google searches and 30-, 60-, and 90-day credit card and mortgage delinquency rates. RESULTS: We found that a proxy for influenza outbreaks is associated with a small but statistically significant increase in credit card and mortgage default rates, net of other factors. These effects are largest for 90-day defaults, suggesting that influenza outbreaks have a disproportionate impact on vulnerable borrowers who are already behind on their payments. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, it appears there is a relationship between exogenous health shocks (such as influenza) and credit default. The results suggest that consumer finances could benefit from policies that aim to reduce the financial shocks of illness, particularly for vulnerable borrowers.

Home Foreclosure and Child Protective Services Involvement.

OBJECTIVE: We estimated associations between experiencing a home foreclosure filing and experiencing a child protective services (CPS) investigation or substantiation. METHODS: We linked a large sample drawn from administrative data on foreclosure filings, CPS involvement, and participation in a host of other public programs for >60,000 Wisconsin households over a 4-year period from 2008 to 2011. Our empirical analyses used piecewise exponential survival models to estimate the risk of CPS involvement (investigation or substantiation) as a function of a home foreclosure filing and a set of individual and household characteristics. We fitted these models with and without the inclusion of propensity score weights. RESULTS: Households that experienced a foreclosure filing had a much higher probability of CPS involvement. This was true in the year before the filing as well as the year after the foreclosure filing. However, these associations were generally largest in the period before or shortly afterward. CONCLUSIONS: Experiencing a foreclosure filing is associated with increased CPS involvement. However, it is not clear that this association is driven by the foreclosure filing action itself. Rather, increased risk of CPS involvement is apparent during the process of moving toward the filing as well as the year or so after the filing, both of which are likely characterized by limited economic resources as well as by financial and other stress.