Overview
Family Financial Security: Implications for
Policy and Practice
A Symposium hosted by the Center for Financial Security at the
School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin - Madison
April 19 - 20, 2010
Events in the last year provide clear evidence of the need to better understand consumer behavior and financial decision making. Understanding these complex issues require collaborative investigations across areas such as economics, finance, psychology, sociology, law, public policy, and human development. Family Financial Security: Implications for Policy and Practice brings together scholars from diverse fields to present relevant research to high-level practitioners and then engage in discussion of how programs, policies and products can best promote family financial security.
The day and a half event will be held at the Fluno Center on the University of Wisconsin - Madison campus. Day One includes an overview, two panels and an evening reception. Day Two also features two panels as well as a wrap-up discussion. The event ends mid-day to facilitate travel and ample time is included in the agenda for networking, discussion and collaboration.
Each of the four panels features up to three topical papers by leading academics along with discussants drawn from nonprofit practitioners, foundations, policymakers and financial professionals. The Symposium will be promoted to professionals in the fields of financial services and banking, government, nonprofits, credit counseling and financial planning, although attendance will be limited to 150.
Panels will include:
Banking and Financial |
Why consumers prefer alternatives to traditional financial products; How non-price factors influences consumer choices; How institutional factors drive decision processes |
Credit Selection and Use |
Perceptions of the risks and costs of borrowing; Understanding long-term consequences of credit choices; Optimal structures for credit offers and regulation |
Thrift and Debt |
Social trends in consumption/saving; Consumer use of self-control and behavioral constraints; How spending habits influence and are influenced by personal relationships |
Saving for Retirement |
Trigger events and retirement choices; Understanding intergenerational knowledge transfers on planning for retirement; How advice and tools influence choices; How non-retirement savings factors into current borrowing and investment choices. |
A summary of proceedings will be produced as well as a brief overview paper tying themes across topics. Papers will become Center for Financial Security working papers and may be considered for publication in a collaborating multidisciplinary journal.
