In this paper we look at the role of pre-payment (in the context of prepayment metering) for household electricity consumption. Using a matching approach, we find that households paying their electricity up-front tend to consume no less electricity than households paying ex post. This is despite...

It is a well established fact that electricity use increases with income. What is less well known is that - despite the positive correlation between electricity use and income - a significant portion of low-income households consume very large amounts of electricity. In this paper, we make a...

The labor-market assimilation hypothesis predicts poorer initial labor-market outcomes among immigrants followed by convergence towards the outcomes of the native-born working-age population with time lived in the receiving country. The authors investigate the applicability of this hypothesis to...

This article discusses why effective outreach to Hispanics is important to improve their understanding of Social Security and enhance their retirement security. It examines Social Security literacy and preferred ways of receiving information about the program by using focus groups of three...

This project report presents findings from the qualitative component of a study to examine American's understanding of Social Security terminology regarding retirement, and to test responses to alternate names for those terms. Phase 1 of this study was a short survey of 1,260 respondents of the...