Banking and Financial Services Issues

Essay

What Would It Take to Close America's Black-White Wealth Gap?

White Americans hold ten times more total wealth than Black Americans, a disparity that has worsened in recent decades. RAND researchers modeled wealth across millions of households and tested several funding scenarios to see which could most effectively close the gap.

Blog

Opioids in America, Silicon Valley Bank, Semiconductors: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on addressing America's illicit opioids problem, Silicon Valley Bank’s demise, Taiwan’s semiconductor dominance, and more.

Commentary

Financial Panic in the Age of Digital Banking and Social Media

Bank runs as a source of systemic risk are nothing new. To manage systemic risks in the age of social media, regulators may need to anticipate where the crisis will go and build in automatic brakes to slow them down. There likely won't be time to react at the speed of negotiation between regulators and bankers.

Commentary

To Help African Americans Gain Generational Wealth, Look to the Housing Market

African American families have significantly less wealth than White families, even after reaching the middle class. Home ownership is, for the vast majority of Americans, the primary vehicle for accruing wealth, and passing it down through generations. This is a crucial time for policymakers to consider policies that focus on improving home ownership rates for African Americans.

Report

Accounting for Black-White Wealth Differences

Wealth accumulation is not solely determined by a person's choices and ability. Many factors affect individual wealth, including parental income, credit, and systemic discrimination. These factors have a cumulative effect and can lead to persistent disparities over generations.

Equifax and the Data-Breach Era: How Worried Should We Be?

Large-scale data breaches have compromised the identifying information of millions of people. What can policymakers do to improve responses to such breaches, and how can the public protect information that has already been compromised? Lilian Ablon and Sina Beaghley answer these questions and more in a RAND Congressional Briefing.

The Future of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act: Expiration, Reauthorization, Modification

To inform the debate on whether TRIA should be reauthorized, modified, or allowed to expire, RAND experts will present the findings of their recent work on this topic and address different facets of this complex issue, including the pros and cons of proposed TRIA modifications.

Unique Educational Games for Financial Literacy

Nick Maynard and Timothy Flacke of the D2D Fund will discuss the value of financial entertainment as an educational tool and demonstrate two video games they developed to teach lessons about financial literacy.

Financial Literacy and Individuals' Investment Decisions

Economists Joanne Yoong and Angela Hung present Investor Choices and Financial Literacy: Evidence from Mutual Fund Choice Experiments at a Congressional Briefing on February 9, 2009.

The Effect of Sarbanes-Oxley on Firm Exits from the Public Market

Pinar Karaca-Mandic will present How Does Sarbanes-Oxley Affect Firms' Decisions to Stay in the Public Market or Go Private? at a RAND Congressional Briefing on February 25.

In Case You Missed It: Data Thieves

In 2017, there were more than one thousand data breaches exposing over a billion records of sensitive data. What's happening to stolen data and how is it being monetized? Lillian Ablon addresses these concerns.

In Case You Missed It: Equifax and the Data-Breach Era

There has been a recent string of large-scale data breaches that have compromised the private information of millions of customers. Lillian Ablon and Sina Beaghley briefed Congressional staff on how the government and breached companies can better protect victims.

Should TRIA Continue Or Be Allowed to Expire?

Since the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was reauthorized in 2007, terrorism insurance has remained widely available and the price has fallen. With TRIA set to expire in December, however, it is unclear whether improvements in the market since TRIA was first passed in 2002 can be sustained without it.

Expiration of TRIA Could Prove Costly for Workers' Compensation Markets, Businesses, and States

Policy debates over extending the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act have focused mainly on property insurance, yet certain institutional features of workers' compensation markets could cause the act's expiration to have very different consequences.

New Study: Extending TRIA Could Lower Federal Costs

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act will expire at the end of this year and Congress is considering the appropriate government role in terrorism insurance markets. In a terrorist attack with losses up to $50 billion, the federal government would spend more helping to cover losses than if it had continued to support a national terrorism risk insurance program.

RAND.org's Redesign: New Homepage and Navigation Optimization for All Devices

RAND.org has been reimagined to make high quality research and insights more accessible to Hill staff like you. The new homepage and updated navigation optimize content delivery for your preferred device and place our most timely content at your fingertips.

Expiration of Terrorism Risk Insurance Act Could Impact National Security

The current terrorism risk insurance act will expire in 2014 and Congress again is considering the appropriate government role in terrorism insurance markets. If the act expires and the take-up rate for terrorism insurance falls, then the U.S. would be less resilient to future terrorist attacks.