CFS RDRC Releases Research and Training Opportunities
The Center for Financial Security Retirement and Disability Research Center (CFS RDRC) is excited to announce four different calls for proposals. Our training program offers many competitive funding opportunities. While deadlines may be extended in some cases, the deadline for priority consideration is February 3, 2022. Applicants may apply to multiple opportunities; simply complete an application for each opportunity of interest.
- Junior Scholar Intensive Training (JSIT) Summer Research Workshop : 2022 Call for Applications
- Retirement and Disability Social Policy In-Residence Postdoctoral Fellowship Program : 2022 Call for Applications
- Retirement and Disability Social Policy Extramural Mentored Fellowship Program : 2022 Call for Applications
- IRP Extramural Small Grant on Poverty, Retirement, and Disability Research : 2022 Call for Applications
Annual Junior Scholars Intensive Training Sees Success
For a week in June 2021, the Center for Financial Security (CFS)—in collaboration with Howard University’s Center on Race and Wealth—held the annual summer workshop of Junior Scholar Intensive Training (JSIT) program. JSTI is an intensive training program for emerging researchers, and made possible with funding from the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium of the Social Security Administration (SSA).
This year’s JSIT workshop was virtual, allowing participation from Minnesota to Mississippi, and California to Cambridge (England!). Scholars are first-generation and/or are economically disadvantaged and/or are from historically underrepresented populations.
“I’ve participated in a lot of junior scholar workshops, but none were as beneficial as JSIT. JSIT provided the opportunity to develop and get feedback through “hands on,” iterative activities. I’m still amazed at how much I developed in just one week!”
Mila Turner, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Florida A&M University was part of this year’s JSIT cohort.
CFS RDRC Awarded Fourth Year of Funding to Support Research on Financial Vulnerability
U.S. Social Security Administration approves 13 major research projects, investigating a range of social insurance topics, including the Child Tax Credit, the geography of long-term care, the effects of COVID-19 on older adults, and improving trust among those targeted by scams and frauds.
The University of Wisconsin—Madison’s Center for Financial Security (CFS), as part of the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium (RDRC), has been awarded a fourth year of funding for $2.2 million from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA). One of just four RDRC centers in the country supported by SSA, the UW-Madison center has a particular focus on the financial well-being of economically vulnerable families, older people, people with disabilities, low-wealth households, and children.
“The pandemic has really highlighted the financial vulnerability of many families, and how important safety net programs are to keep people financially stable,” says CFS Faculty Director Dr. J. Michael Collins, Fetzer Family Chair in Consumer and Personal Finance in the School of Human Ecology and Professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs. “We are grateful for the Social Security RDRC to be able to support this research, including work related to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 for disability, retirement and social insurance programs.”
Our CFS Commitment to Change
The goal of the Center for Financial Security (CFS) is to develop evidence–high quality, rigorous research–that can guide policies, programs and financial systems that reduce inequities, and that include and support economically vulnerable people. We are driven by serious concerns about racial injustice, and its attendant economic insecurity, especially in light of the current pandemic and social issues that have only intensified disparities.
Household Finance Research Seminar, held weekly on Thursdays from 3:45-4:45pm
Our Spring 2022 HHF Seminars will be held in-person in 1199 Nancy Nicholas Hall and virtually via Zoom. Click HERE for Zoom link and meeting invitation.
With over 50 faculty affiliates across departments at UW-Madison, as well as more than 50 fellows at other institutions throughout the nation, The Center for Financial Security is pleased to provide a platform for sharing some of the most exciting and innovative early stage research in the household finance realm. Join us every Thursday of the academic year for a seminar from 3:45-4:45 pm for this multi-disciplinary exploration of household finance research.
Supporting Employee Financial Stability: How Philanthropy Catalyzes Workplace Financial Coaching Programs
The Center for Financial Security and the Asset Funders Network (AFN) collaborated on a case-study investigation of employer-based financial coaching programs in the latest research: Supporting Employee Financial Stability: How Philanthropy Catalyzes Workplace Financial Coaching Programs. This brief shares innovative approaches employers believe increase recruitment and retention while impacting employee financial well-being.
Fall 2021 Speaker Calendar
September 9: Stephen Ross, University of Connecticut, High Cost Lenders and the Geographic Concentration of Foreclosures
September 23: Erik Hembre, University of Illinois-Chicago, Tax Incentives and Housing Decisions: Investigating Effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
September 30: Omer Ali, The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, Survey evidence of racial disparities in the impact of COVID-19
October 7: Michael Collins, UW-Madison, Economic Security of Older Adults during the COVID19 Crisis: Early Data to Inform Research and Policy
October 14: Cody Vaughn, UW-LaCrosse, Medicaid Generosity and Food Hardship Among Children (slides)(paper)
October 21: Andrés Shahidinejad, Ph.D. Student in Economics at University of Chicago, Banking with Credit Unions: Household Credit Consequences
October 28: Jennifer Doleac, Texas A&M University, What Does Retirement Look Like for the Criminal-Justice-Involved Population? Sources of Income in Old Age for People with Criminal Records
November 11: Carter Braxton, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Can the unemployed borrow? Implications for public insurance
November 18: Adibah Abdulhadi, Ph.D. Student Economics at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Selection in Disability Insurance Market
December 2: Angie Ahmadi, American University, Long-Term Care Insurance: Welfare Implications of Health Uncertainty and Suboptimal Timing of Purchase
December 16: Sarah Halpern-Meekin, University of Wisconsin-Madison & Laura Tach, Cornell University, Prime-age men’s labor force disconnection
Christiana Stoddard
Professor of Economics
Montana State University
Research Interests: Economics of Education (student loans, achievement, teacher labor markets), Public Economics, Labor Economics, Health Economics
cstoddard@montana.edu
University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Financial Security 