14 research outputs found
Constructing and Maintaining Legitimacy: Sociological Perspectives of the Politics of Central Banking
No full textPart One of the Changing Politics of Central Banking SeriesThis working paper reviews central banking research produced in sociology and anthropology, most of which has been published in the last five to ten years. These studies focus on institutional structures and social and cultural processes that shape central bank activity, with significant attention to the ways in which central banks seek to legitimate their actions. I outline key themes that have emerged, including central banks’ internal decision-making and analysis of the international pressures they face. I review research examining the ways in which central bankers are influenced by one another, use performative rhetoric to manage the market, and engage in relational work with a variety of actors as they seek to maintain their legitimacy. This research is an important complement to traditional central banking research published in the fields of economics, political science, and law, and underscores the complexity involved in the day-to-day operations of central banks
Geographies of Financial (In)Opportunity: Socio-spatial Consequences of Payday Lending Support and Regulation
No full textConsumer credit has become increasingly costly within the United States, with payday lending, an industry built on high-interest loans, as a prime example. I consider two supply-side factors that facilitate the proliferation of high-interest credit and impact consumer access to financial services: firm-level relationships between banks and payday lenders and uneven payday lending regulation. First, I use archival financial documents from publicly-traded national payday lending chains to qualitatively assess the scope of, and motivations behind, financial relationships with banks. I find that some of the largest U.S. banks have provided consistent, long-term financial support to payday lenders. I develop the concept of financial symbiosis to describe how sustained, dependent exchanges of capital across firms operating in within the credit market may disrupt the marketplace for consumers. Then, I examine whether these aspatial financial relationships impact branching patterns for banks within local markets. I construct a novel panel dataset of payday storefronts, bank branches, their financial relationships, and the zip codes they serve in the Denver Metropolitan Statistical Area between 1998 and 2014. I find the presence of payday lenders modestly increases the probability that banks that support the industry will move into the market, but this does not substantively differ from the entry patterns of other large banks. At the zip code level, involvement in payday lender financing does not produce distinctive branching patterns. Finally, I assess the efficacy of a key federal policy initiative that sought to protect military service members from high-interest lending: the 2007 Military Lending Act (MLA), which created a federal interest rate cap on loans to military members. I leverage state-level variation in payday lending laws in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon and find that the MLA alone had virtually no impact on reducing payday loan exposure in military communities. Conversely, state-wide restrictions limiting interest rates for all consumer loans was effective in reducing payday lender presence in all communities, including military areas. I contend that protective financial policies may be most effective if enacted through broader regulations and/or the development of public alternatives to high-interest lending
Leaving the Financial Nest: Connecting Young Adults’ Financial Independence to Financial Security
No full textObjective: This study examines variation in young adults’ transitions to financial independence and the relationship between these transitions and financial security.
Background: Individuals on their families for substantial financial support well into early adulthood, even as young adults perceive independence as a key marker of adulthood. Given known variation in transitions to adulthood and unequal exposure to financial precariousness across social groups, the authors ask whether heterogeneity emerges with regards to the timing of financial independence and types of support received, and how differences in pathways to independence may matter for financial security later in young adulthood.
Method: The authors estimate group-based trajectory models of four indicators of financial independence for 1,719 young adults from age 18 - 27 using data from the 2005-2015 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (http://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/). These trajectories are then used to estimate predicted levels of financial security at the end of the study period, using logistic and linear regression analysis.
Results: Results show that paths to young adults’ financial independence are best characterized by four types of trajectories: Consistently Independent (23%), Quickly Independent (41%), Gradually Independent (23%), and Consistently Supported (13%), with types and duration of support varying substantially across trajectories. The authors find that young adults experiencing trajectories characterized by lower levels of familial support also report higher levels of financial insecurity by the end of the survey.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that the patterning and timing of financial independence in the transition to adulthood has implications for financial wellbeing
WI22-03: Family Proximity and Co-Residence in Retirement Heterogeneity in Residential Changes Across Older Adults’ Care Contexts
No full textResidential changes to live near or with family can facilitate caregiving for children and older adults, along with other supports, but family-based residential changes could also have implications for economic security in retirement, including if changes correspond with earlier receipt of retirement benefits through the Social Security Administration (SSA). This study examines: 1) How often do residential changes to live near or with family coincide with retirement? 2) How do caregiving responsibilities impact the risk of such a residential change? and 3) How do these associations correspond with early SSA claiming around retirement? Using the longitudinal data of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) from 2000 to 2018, we follow 2,798 households pre- and post-retirement. Results show that the risk of a residential change that puts an older adult household in close proximity to their child is significantly higher at the onset of retirement, compared to pre-retirement years, while the risks of residential changes that result in co-residence with children are less tied to retirement. There is evidence that grandchild-caregiving responsibilities for the older adult increase the risk of these residential changes. Finally, we find little evidence that such changes are tied to earlier Social Security retirement benefits claiming when comparing those who make such changes around retirement to those who do not. Thus, although many older adults are making significant changes to their living arrangements as they manage family-care needs, they are not at disproportionate risk of claiming SSA retirement benefits early when doing so
Leaving the Financial Nest: Connecting Young Adults' Financial Independence to Financial Security
No full textLeaving the Financial Nest: Connecting Young Adults’ Financial Independence to Financial Security
No full textObjective: This study examines variation in young adults’ transitions to financial independence and the relationship between these transitions and financial security.
Background: Individuals on their families for substantial financial support well into early adulthood, even as young adults perceive independence as a key marker of adulthood. Given known variation in transitions to adulthood and unequal exposure to financial precariousness across social groups, the authors ask whether heterogeneity emerges with regards to the timing of financial independence and types of support received, and how differences in pathways to independence may matter for financial security later in young adulthood.
Method: The authors estimate group-based trajectory models of four indicators of financial independence for 1,719 young adults from age 18 - 27 using data from the 2005-2015 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (http://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/). These trajectories are then used to estimate predicted levels of financial security at the end of the study period, using logistic and linear regression analysis.
Results: Results show that paths to young adults’ financial independence are best characterized by four types of trajectories: Consistently Independent (23%), Quickly Independent (41%), Gradually Independent (23%), and Consistently Supported (13%), with types and duration of support varying substantially across trajectories. The authors find that young adults experiencing trajectories characterized by lower levels of familial support also report higher levels of financial insecurity by the end of the survey.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that the patterning and timing of financial independence in the transition to adulthood has implications for financial wellbeing
Marginalized legal categories: Social inequality, family structure, and the laws of intestacy
No full textData_Sheet_1_Payday lenders and premature mortality.docx
No full textRelationships between debt and poor health are worrisome as access to expensive credit expands and population health worsens along certain metrics. We focus on payday lenders as one type of expensive credit and investigate the spatial relationships between lender storefronts and premature mortality rates. We combine causes of death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and payday lender locations at the county-level in the United States between 2000 and 2017. After accounting for county socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, the local presence of payday lenders is associated with an increased incidence risk of all-cause and specific-cause premature mortality. State regulations may attenuate these relationships, which provides insights on policy strategies to mitigate health impacts.</p
Networking in the Shadow of the Law: Informal Access to Legal Expertise through Personal Network Ties
No full textExploring the expansion of planner’s engagement capabilities via accessing the data from a building information model for public consultation
No full textA statutory urban planning consultation is the only opportunity to address concerns of the public regarding the shared built environment. However, current methods for consulting the public on urban planning proposals are archaic. They are often uncoordinated and can potentially fail to provide an inclusive forum for all socio-demographics.
Face-to-face consultations are noted as the best method to consult. However, they only provide a means for those with time and mobility to attend the discussions, workshops, and exhibitions regarding the built environment.
Urban planning consultation processes are also limited by stakeholder relationships. It is not often that stakeholders acknowledge each other. This thesis focuses on approaches to stakeholder identification, management, and engagement. Stakeholders can be identified at any stage of project development and addressed as internal (who have a direct hand in changing a project) and external (who are impacted by changes.) Stakeholder management and engagement can vary in theory and practice, and this thesis will explore this.
Internal stakeholders utilise their own communication methods and processes to cooperate and consider risk at each stage of the project. Building information modelling (BIM) is a collaborative tool which shares textual and image data among the building development project team. Planners implementing a consultation with the public do not use BIM, as it is software for internal stakeholders to share information for the project development in a common data environment (CDE). BIM is a technical methodology primarily used to communicate the strategy of the project (including usual details and specifications) but is limited in its further applications for encouraging communication beyond this initial scope.
External stakeholders rely on planners to reach wider audiences, but without mediation from an expert to explain the technical language in layman’s terms, there remains a gap in knowledge making it difficult for the public to understand specific design decisions.
This PhD study aims to understand how 3D Building Information Models (BIM) and associated data can be utilised to facilitate communication throughout each stage of the planning consultation and explores how BIM may be used to address the knowledge gap specifically through an online planning consultation platform.
This is increasingly important as more digital tools are being introduced into the planning sphere and incorporating the views of the public and other stakeholders, should be central to planning consultations in the UK.
This research presents mixed methods in order to identify the requirements for a digital planning portal that best presents BIM data for the use of public consultations.
The visual and textual information of a BIM model is documented and validated with a case study and recommendations are made for using BIM data within a public consultation.
Throughout the study, the concepts of what consultations are in currently in place are considered, in parallel to current policy and best practice. The author presents the impact digital tools and how these might be utilised within the current planning consultation process.
The findings show that, with the incorporation of digital platforms in planning consultations, a greater focus on stakeholder perspectives and relationships can be established
