Asset Building in the US

This is the first large-scale demonstration of Individual Development Accounts, with approximately 2,400 accounts opened at 13 sites across the country. 

We examine the patterns and determinants of asset accumulation across the life course, using 35 years of data.

CSD's work at the intersection of disability and asset building continues to inform policy as well as practice.

We assisted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families in designing the next evaluation of the AFIA program. 

CSD seeks to inform and put in place an inclusive 529 platform for educational savings to increase postsecondary degree success among lower-income children, youth, and non-traditional students.

With the Buder Center for American Indian Studies, we investigate the potential of using the Earned Income Tax Credit toward poverty alleviation in Indian Country. 

We investigate the asset holdings of one Native community by asking members to define "assets" for themselves and for their community. 

We expand the national methodology for basic income adequacy and economic security measure by including saving components. 

Our research addresses saving for post-secondary education in American Indian communities in North Carolina. 

In 1998, the Minnesota Legislature passed into law the Family Assets for Independence in Minnesota (FAIM) Pilot Project for IDAs. FAIM was the first statewide IDA program to be studied in this level of detail.

The first statewide Child Development Account (CDA) in the U.S., Maine’s Harold Alfond College Challenge, stands as a shining example of universal and progressive accounts at birth. We study the College Challenge and document this CDA’s evolution.

We held a research and policy symposium on knowledge foundations and policy strategies to enable low-wealth individuals to build assets.

We created a tool for the American Dream Policy Demonstration to track demographics and savings of low-income individuals participating in a matched savings program. 

Our research examines the effectiveness of asset-building policies in Native communities and seeks to inform policy design to make inclusive asset-building policies. 

Our project with the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies examines the uptake and potential uses of Earned Income Tax Credit dollars by Native people. 

Our project with the Urban Institute evaluates studies of asset building among low-income households for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

The SEED OK experiment, which began in 2007, is a large-scale policy test of universal, automatic, and progressive Child Development Accounts. The CDA uses the Oklahoma 529 College Savings Plan platform.

We test asset-building accounts for children and youth to create an inclusive system of Child Development Accounts in 12 communities across the U.S. SEED included more than 1,200 low-income children and their families.

We examine economic well-being outcomes among low-income individuals who took part in one of seven microenterprise assistance programs in the U.S. 

We built an inclusive statewide and regional asset-building coalition in the South with Historically Black Colleges and Universities as partners.

Our research informs development of asset-building policies at the state level and is designed to include traditionally marginalized groups. 

Our project with the United Way of Greater St. Louis implemented an IDA Pilot Program to explore a way to build assets in low-income households and communities. 

We research asset development in rural America with a focus on underserved populations

We test the role of state welfare asset limits on low-income households' ability to build assets.