How much should a family save for retirement and for the kids’ college education? How much insurance should they buy? How should they allocate their portfolio across different assets? What should a company choose as the default asset allocation for a mandatory retirement saving plan? We...

Most young households simultaneously hold both unsecured debt on which they pay an average of 10 percent interest and social security wealth on which they earn less than 2 percent. We document this fact using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We then consider a life-cycle model with...

This paper summarizes and outlines some interesting issues that arose during a recent workshop on Consumer Behavior and Payment Choice, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Emerging Payments Research Group (EPRG) on July 25, 2008. Topics addressed are the consumer adoption of new...

We examine the effects of collateralized borrowing in a realistically parameterized life-cycle portfolio choice problem. We provide basic intuition in a two-period model and then solve a multi-period model computationally. Our analysis provides insights into life-cycle portfolio choice relevant...

The U.S. mortgage market has experienced phenomenal change over the last 35 years. Most observers believe that the deregulation of the banking industry and financial markets generally has played an important part in this transformation. One issue that has received particular attention is the...

This module shows: The changing patterns in foreclosure rates and subprime mortgage originations across Massachusetts cities and towns over time; How movements in these rates compare with movements in house prices for any user-selected city or town; The association between foreclosure rates and...

Recent studies and reports have called attention to the issue of population migration patterns in New England. To provide more targeted and regional data on this issue, NEPPC has developed a series of findings and maps that, for the first time, present a comprehensive, county-by-county portrait...

This paper estimates the potential economic impact of New Hampshire’s new state minimum wage law on the state’s aggregate employment and wages. According to the analysis, the minimum wage increase would raise the wages of 26,000 workers in the state and would have a negative impact on...

A September 8, 2006, ruling by the New Hampshire Supreme Court that the Granite State’s current education financing system is unconstitutional was the latest in a long string of court decisions, legislative responses, and subsequent court opinions that have made school funding one of the...

An education finance system that is constitutional under the Brigham ruling mandates sacrifices on the part of taxpayers for a public good—educated citizens. It remains to be seen if current proposals can make that sacrifice more palatable or ensure that those bearing the burden have the most...