The Impacts of IDA Programs on Family Savings and Asset-Holdings

This paper was commissioned for Inclusion in Asset Building: Research and Policy Symposium, an event hosted in September 2000 by the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis. A version was subsequently developed for publication in Inclusion in the American Dream: Assets, Poverty, and Public Policy (Oxford University Press, 2005). This paper supplements research on the national Individual Development Account (IDA) pilot known as the Downpayment on the American Dream Demonstration (ADD). Its subject is the financial impact of ADD on the net savings and assets of program participants, and it examines what ADD participants would have saved had they not joined an IDA program. The findings suggest a small but significant effect on net savings and speak to whether IDAs can be effective asset-building tools for individuals who receive welfare benefits.

Project: Inclusion in Asset Building: Research and Policy Symposium