Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Robert I. Lerman on Families/Parenting

The increasing recognition of the importance of marriage for the social and economic well-being of children has led to demonstrations aimed at strengthening and stimulating healthy marriages. The next step is to ensure that factors closely linked with healthy marriages are addressed as well. This paper brings together research findings and policy ideas about the interactions between marriage, employment, and family functioning. It presents a framework and proposes several demonstrations aimed at improving employment and family outcomes for disadvantaged populations. The appendix reviews an extensive body of research on specific linkages between marriage, employment, and family functioning.

Using data from the Federal Reserve Board's Surveys of Consumer Finances (SCFs), we follow one segment of a cohort over its life cycle—married couples as the husband ages from 36–44 in 1989 to 51–59 in 2004. We find that middle-income and lower-middle-income married-couple households experienced modest income growth but rapid growth in net worth. Overall, the evidence documents significant gains in income and wealth as married couples aged from their late 30s to their 50s.

Despite a plethora of proposals for helping people build assets, policy researchers have provided little methodological guidance about how best to view and evaluate these policies. This paper is an initial attempt to move in this direction, drawing on methods for assessing income-tested and social insurance programs and on analyses of public policies dealing with savings, investments, and risks. It examines whether and in what ways the traditional criteria of incentives, progressivity, and equity apply to an assessment of asset-building policies. Further, it discusses how to design an asset policy to deal with the potential social dislocations arising from gentrification.

Over the last two decades, American households have generated healthy increases in wealth, but only modest increases in income.

Report No. 1 of the Opportunity and Ownership Project. Financial services have become more free and accessible, but also increasingly complex. For new financial options to help most people, they must understand their options. Unfortunately, Americans have a weak grasp of basic finance. This paper emphasizes the importance of financial literacy and examines current financial education strategies. We explore two methods of financial education—broad financial curriculums and "teachable moments." After examining each, we suggest that a combination of the two perspectives, with the topics and strategies varying by target audience. We conclude by calling for a more rigorous evaluation of the effects of existing programs.

Even when incentives to save and invest are strong, many low- and moderate-income families lack the basic knowledge to manage their income wisely, build wealth, and avoid excessive debt. This brief examines financial literacy research and programs to improve financial knowledge and decision-making. While research suggests that existing programs do make a difference in financial behavior, data collection and policy concerns make financial literacy a fertile ground for further development as part of an asset-building agenda.

Building up assets and avoiding excessive debt can help families insure against unforeseen disruptions, achieve economic independence, and reach the middle class. Asset building, however, can be difficult for many low- and moderate-income families, who must overcome many economic obstacles and work off high liabilities to accumulate adequate net worth. This brief examines the levels and assets and debts, saving behaviors, and variations in these data across representative samples of American families in order to identify populations least able to accumulate assets, and examine factors that are linked to asset-building in financially vulnerable households.

The weakening economy and job losses after late 2000 posed a tough challenge for welfare reform's employment strategy. This issue of the Single Parent's Earnings Monitor finds that single mothers retained most of their post-welfare reform gains in employment and wages through the 2001-2003 recession.

This study examines the interplay between job stability, wage rates, and marital instability. We use a Dynamic Selection Control model in which young men make sequential choices about work and family. Our empirical estimates derived from the model account for self-selection, simultaneity, and unobserved heterogeneity. The results capture how job stability affects earnings, how both affect marital status, and how marital status affects earnings and job stability. The study reveals robust evidence that job instability lowers wages and the likelihood of getting and remaining married. At the same time, marriage raises wages and job stability. To project the sequential effects linking job stability, marital status, and earnings, we simulate the impacts of shocks that raise preferences for marriage and that increase education. Feedback effects cause the simulated wage gains from marriage to accumulate over time, indicating that long-run marriage wage premiums exceed conventional short-run estimates.

Contrary to widespread concerns, the work-oriented welfare system has withstood the economic slowdown so far, largely because single mothers--the group most at risk of going on welfare--have maintained high levels of employment. Many worried that the welfare system would face serious strains in a recession, with large numbers of low-income, single parents losing their jobs and having nowhere to turn because time limits and other restrictions limit their eligibility for welfare.