faiVLive: How Low-Income Households Save—And Can We Help?

Savings has traditionally been measured by asking about “account” balances, or in national accounts by comparing incomes to expenditures. But we know that low-income households often save actively. They build up and draw down their funds throughout the year—what Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton termed “high frequency savings”—even if their balances don’t grow. 

Short-term savings are a key part of the financial lives of low-income households in the US and in developing countries; the challenges they face in building up and effectively using their savings are quite similar as well.  

This edition of faiVLive—co-presented with the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program—took place on Wednesday October 28th, bringing together researchers and practitioners to look at how short-term savings work and don’t work, with a particular eye to whether and how savings for low-income households can be boosted.

WATCH THE RECORDING HERE

Participants:

• Jessica Goldberg, University of Maryland

• Jonathan Lee, Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners

• Genevieve Melford, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program 

• Jonathan Morduch, New York University and FAI

Moderator:

• Timothy Ogden, Managing Director, FAI

Interesting reading:

• Savings Horizons: U.S. Financial Diaries Issue Brief, and Emergency Savings: U.S. Financial Diaries Issue Brief, 2015

• The Great Convergence: Toward a Global Strategy for Financial Inclusion, Aspen FSP and Tim Ogden, 2019

• The Role of Savings in Developing Countries: A Review of the Microeconomic Evidence, Jessica Goldberg, 2020

• The Cycle of Savings: What We Gain When We Understand Savings as a Dynamic Process, Aspen FSP, 2020

This faiVLive is supported by the Mastercard Impact fund, and in collaboration with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

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