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Publication Is the Growing Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases in India Preventable?(2024-06-19) Gaiha, Raghav; Kulkarni, Vani S.; Unnikrishnan, VidhyaNon-Communicable Disease (NCD) morbidity and mortality as shares of total morbidity and mortality have risen steadily in India and projected to surge rapidly. In 1990, NCDs accounted for 40% of all Indian mortality and are now projected to account for three quarters of all deaths by 2030. Currently, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory illness, and diabetes are the leading causes of death in India, accounting for almost 50% of all deaths. Underlying these rising shares are growing risks that are common to several NCDs. NCDs are chronic in nature and take a long time to develop. They are linked to aging and affluence and have replaced infectious diseases and malnutrition as the dominant causes of ill health and death in much of the world including India. Some NCDs cause others and create clusters of co-morbid conditions (e.g., diabetes can lead to kidney failure and blindness). Old-age morbidity is a rapidly worsening curse in India. The swift descent of the elderly in India (60 years +) into non-communicable diseases (e.g., cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes) could have disastrous consequences in terms of impoverishment of families, excess mortality, lowering of investment and deceleration of economic growth. Indeed, the government must deal simultaneously with the rising fiscal burden of NCDs and substantial burden of infectious diseases. The present study seeks to answer three questions: Why has the prevalence of two NCDs, diabetes and heart diseases risen in recent years? Given the surge in these diseases, whether social protection policies and restructuring of medical services can mitigate such surges in the near future? A related but equally important concern is whether lifestyle and dietary changes could be induced to further prevent the rising burden of these NCDs. Our analysis is based on the only all-India panel survey-India Human Development survey that covers 2005 and 2012. This survey was conducted jointly by University of Maryland and National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi. A robust econometric methodology-specifically, 2SLS- is used to address the endogeneity of key explanatory variables. The results here stress the need to make sure that pension and healthcare reforms are accompanied by greater awareness, expansion of old age pensions and public hospitals, and effective regulation of both public and private hospitals. Key words: NCDs, Diabetes, Heart diseases, Old age and other pensions, Hospitals, IndiaPublication Do Additional Dollars Buy Engagement? Effects of Monetary Incentives on Attending Financial Aid Counseling for At-Risk Students(2024-04-01) Cox, James C.During the COVID pandemic, many financially vulnerable students at Georgia State University (GSU) received money from the CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). With this money depleted, GSU administrators were concerned that GSU HEERF recipients would be at risk of dropping out. They wanted these students to receive financial counseling advising students about their options to successfully fund their education. However, uptake for similar counseling had historically been low. In this context, GSU planned to email HEERF fund recipients inviting them to attend financial counseling.Publication New Insights into Improving Financial Well-being(2024-04-01) Coats, JenniferFinancial well-being (FWB) is often measured using the CFPB’s Financial Well-Being Scale, but there are many alternative ways to assess this concept, including individual perceptions of FWB (e.g., financial satisfaction or stress), objective outcomes that are indicative of FWB (e.g., net wealth and retirement adequacy), and behaviors that influence FWB (e.g., planning, saving, and budgeting). Improving FWB requires a nuanced understanding of factors contributing to these measures. We present results of an analysis designed to investigate the drivers through which individuals attain FWB across its different dimensions. Individual discount rates, risk preferences, and financial self-confidence consistently contribute to different indicators of FWB. In particular, we find significant evidence that both the discount rate and self-confidence in financial decision-making have strong impacts on the dimensions of FWB. Financial literacy has an important moderating role in relation to these two drivers and to income. Personality traits, such as conscientiousness and neuroticism are influential in alternative ways across models.Publication Financial Literacy, Portfolio Choice, and Wealth Inequality: A General Equilibrium Approach(2024-04-12) Kim, MinI develop a general equilibrium model in which households allocate their wealth to safe and risky assets (“bonds” and “stocks”) and accumulate financial literacy to raise their risk-adjusted stock returns. Calibrated to match financial literacy and stock market participation rate of U.S. households, the model demonstrates that a policy subsidizing financial literacy acquisition increases short-run stock investments. In equilibrium, however, the resulting aggregate capital growth lowers the average equity premium, thereby moderating the subsidy’s impact. The policy mitigates wealth inequality by inducing heterogeneous portfolio adjustments across the wealth distribution. With the subsidy, the middle wealth quartiles acquire more financial literacy and shift their portfolios toward stocks. The top quartile attains its maximum literacy level prior to the subsidy and shifts toward bonds to compensate for lower stock returns. The ratio of total wealth held by the top quartile versus the rest of the population decreases.Publication Challenges and opportunity: An examination of barriers to postsecondary academic success(2024) Sade BonillaCommunity colleges are a critical component of the U.S. higher education system, providing access to students from traditionally underserved communities. However, enduring challenges to completion stemming from educational, economic, and social inequities persist. Building on prior work that examines barriers to student success and their relationship to student outcomes, this descriptive study examines the relationship between students’ time utilization, engagement with campus resources, financial and mental well-being, with academic persistence. Specifically, we examine the relative importance of these barriers on students’ educational attainment. We find that the incidence of adverse mental health is comparable to 4-year undergraduate populations. The rates of food and housing insecurity are comparable to previous studies, though strikingly high. While a plurality of respondents engage with multiple campus resources, this engagement is unrelated to their propensity to remain enrolled or complete additional credits. Most notably, mental health conditions were negatively related to persistence and credit accumulation, while the relationship between academic outcomes and measures of food and housing insecurity was smaller and not significant. Our findings suggest that facilitating access to mental health supports is a prominent avenue for supporting student engagement and success. Keywords: community college; higher education; community college success rates; community college success indicators; college mental health campus communities