In this video presentation David Mitchell from the Aspen Institute explains strategies for mitigating and preventing income volatility at the household level.   This presentation was given at the Prosper Canada Policy Research Symposium on March 9, 2018. Read the slide deck that accompanies...

The rise of economic inequality has become a staple of policy debates and stump speeches. Less visible is the way the rise has altered the landscape of America’s urban neighborhoods. Two books should help change that. Matthew Desmond, an urban sociologist at Harvard, has delivered a jolt with...

Food insecurity – inadequate or uncertain access to food because of financial constraints – is a serious public health problem in Canada, and all indications are that the problem is getting worse. Drawing on data for 103,500 households from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health...

This paper provides an in-depth examination of the financial well-being of Black and Hispanic women and the factors contributing to it, using the 2018 wave of the National Financial Capability Study. Differences between Black and Hispanic women versus White women are documented, in that the former...

As the work environment has evolved and jobs look more different, it is important to understand the impact of these changes on income—predictability, variability, and frequency—and how this affects the opportunity for mobility. Because of the complexity of income volatility, there is a unique...

This is the second in a series of briefs produced by a partnership between the Aspen Institute’s Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC), Washington University’s Center for Social Development (CSD), and the Intuit Tax and Financial Center. The first brief highlighted new data on the...

Even before the sharp and enduring increase in unemployment brought on by the Great Recession, policymakers and researchers were concerned about the “hollowing out” of the U.S. labor market. Over the last 25 years, employment and earnings growth for workers in middle-skill jobs has lagged...

Research shows that many people make poor economic decisions because they are financially illiterate. As we show here, financial ignorance can be expensive and even ruinous, for many. Our goal in this article is to provide an overview of existing work in this important field. We also provide new...

This paper examines small-dollar credit alternatives to the current payday-loan product in the province of Alberta. While we recognize that most people have credit requirements from time to time, the unbanked and underbanked who can least afford to do so are forced to obtain credit under the...

The Canadian Foundation for Economic Education (CFEE) works collaboratively with funding partners, departments of education, school boards, schools, educators, and teacher associations to develop and provide free, non-commercial programs and resources for teachers and students – developed and...

The research and policy symposium on income volatility was held on March 9, 2018, in Toronto, Ontario. Speakers from Canada and the United States present on key research findings on the nature of income and expense volatility in the early 21st Century. Speakers also suggest policy solutions to...

At the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health (the Centre), our focus is on building community-based agencies’ capacity for evaluation within the context of evidence-informed practices. The Centre provides funding, support and training to enhance agencies’ evaluation...