IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jebusi/v129y2024ics0148619523000486.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How are veterans faring financially? Updates and new evidence from a national survey

Author

Listed:
  • Mottola, Gary
  • Skimmyhorn, William
  • Valdes, Olivia

Abstract

This research provides new and updated evidence on the financial capability of military veterans. We leverage data from two waves of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation’s National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) to examine how veterans are faring over time, relative to comparable civilians. Overall, veterans in 2018 fared better than non-veterans in several areas. They reported higher financial satisfaction, less difficulty covering expenses, and a higher likelihood of having an emergency fund and non-retirement investment account. However, veterans were more likely to report having experienced a large drop in income, problematic credit card behaviors and late mortgage payments. Notably, though several indicators of overall financial well-being and saving behaviors improved from 2015 to 2018 and spending and credit outcomes worsened, these relative changes did not differ between veterans and non-veterans.

Suggested Citation

  • Mottola, Gary & Skimmyhorn, William & Valdes, Olivia, 2024. "How are veterans faring financially? Updates and new evidence from a national survey," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jebusi:v:129:y:2024:i:c:s0148619523000486
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconbus.2023.106155
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148619523000486
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeconbus.2023.106155?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angrist, Joshua D, 1990. "Lifetime Earnings and the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery: Evidence from Social Security Administrative Records," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 313-336, June.
    2. Richard H. Thaler, 2008. "Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 15-25, 01-02.
    3. Horrace, William C. & Oaxaca, Ronald L., 2006. "Results on the bias and inconsistency of ordinary least squares for the linear probability model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 321-327, March.
    4. Angrist, Joshua & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Why Do World War II Veterans Earn More Than Nonveterans?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(1), pages 74-97, January.
    5. Richard G Netemeyer & Dee Warmath & Daniel Fernandes & John G LynchJr. & Eileen FischerEditor & Olivier ToubiaAssociate Editor, 2018. "How Am I Doing? Perceived Financial Well-Being, Its Potential Antecedents, and Its Relation to Overall Well-Being," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 45(1), pages 68-89.
    6. James J. Choi, 2022. "Popular Personal Financial Advice versus the Professors," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 167-192, Fall.
    7. William Walstad & Carly Urban & Carlos J. Asarta & Elizabeth Breitbach & William Bosshardt & Julie Heath & Barbara O'Neill & Jamie Wagner & Jing Jian Xiao, 2017. "Perspectives on evaluation in financial education: Landscape, issues, and studies," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 93-112, April.
    8. Angrist, Joshua D, 1990. "Lifetime Earnings and the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery: Evidence from Social Security Administrative Records: Errata," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(5), pages 1284-1286, December.
    9. Alair MacLean & Meredith Kleykamp, 2016. "Income Inequality and the Veteran Experience," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 663(1), pages 99-116, January.
    10. William L. Skimmyhorn, 2016. "Comparing Military and Civilian Household Finances: Descriptive Evidence from Recent Surveys," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 471-483, July.
    11. Kyle Greenberg & Matthew Gudgeon & Adam Isen & Corbin Miller & Richard Patterson, 2022. "Army Service in the All-Volunteer Era," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 137(4), pages 2363-2418.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Torun, Huzeyfe, 2019. "Ex-ante labor market effects of compulsory military service," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 90-110.
    2. Katarina Keller & Panu Poutvaara & Andreas Wagener, 2009. "Does Military Draft Discourage Enrollment in Higher Education? Evidence from OECD Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 2838, CESifo.
    3. Frank Hubers & Dinand Webbink, 2015. "The long-term effects of military conscription on educational attainment and wages," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Torun, Huzeyfe & Tumen, Semih, 2016. "The effects of compulsory military service exemption on education and labor market outcomes: Evidence from a natural experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 16-35.
    5. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz, 2018. "Life Insurance Holdings And Well‐Being Of Surviving Spouses," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(3), pages 526-538, July.
    6. Paloyo, Alfredo R., 2010. "Compulsory Military Service in Germany Revisited," Ruhr Economic Papers 206, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    7. Bäckström, Peter, 2023. "Swedish Veterans After Bosnia: The Relationship Between Military Deployment and Labour Market Marginalisation," Umeå Economic Studies 1011, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    8. Grenet, Julien & Hart, Robert A. & Roberts, J. Elizabeth, 2011. "Above and beyond the call. Long-term real earnings effects of British male military conscription in the post-war years," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 194-204, April.
    9. Manuel Denzer, 2019. "Estimating Causal Effects in Binary Response Models with Binary Endogenous Explanatory Variables - A Comparison of Possible Estimators," Working Papers 1916, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    10. Brian Duncan & Hani Mansour & Bryson Rintala, 2019. "Weighing The Military Option: The Effects Of Wartime Conditions On Investments In Human Capital," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(1), pages 264-282, January.
    11. Hou, Benyufang & Liu, Hong & Wang, Sophie Xuefei, 2020. "Returns to military service in off-farm wage employment: Evidence from rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    12. Bauer, Thomas K. & Bender, Stefan & Paloyo, Alfredo R. & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2012. "Evaluating the labor-market effects of compulsory military service," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 814-829.
    13. Aimee Chin, 2005. "Long-Run Labor Market Effects of Japanese American Internment during World War II on Working-Age Male Internees," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(3), pages 491-526, July.
    14. Rabbitt, Matthew P. & Smith, Michael D., 2021. "Food Insecurity Among Working-Age Veterans," USDA Miscellaneous 311332, United States Department of Agriculture.
    15. Oliver Vanden Eynde, 2016. "Military Service and Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from Colonial Punjab," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(4), pages 10031035-10.
    16. Caio Piza & André Portela Souza & Patrick M Emerson & Vivian Amorim, 2024. "The Short- and Longer-Term Effects of a Child Labor Ban," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 38(2), pages 351-370.
    17. Lyk-Jensen, Stéphanie Vincent & Weatherall, Cecilie Dohlmann & Jepsen, Peter Winning, 2016. "The effect of military deployment on mental health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 193-208.
    18. Asali, Muhammad, 2015. "Compulsory Military Service and Future Earnings: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 8892, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Lee, Chulhee, 2007. "Military positions and post-service occupational mobility of Union Army veterans, 1861-1880," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 680-698, October.
    20. Anastasia, Giacomo & Boeri, Tito & Kudlyak, Marianna & Zholud, Oleksandr, 2022. "The Labor Market in Ukraine: Rebuild Better," IZA Policy Papers 196, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jebusi:v:129:y:2024:i:c:s0148619523000486. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-economics-and-business .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.