Spend Smart Eat Smart (SSES), a unique website combining nutrition and food buying education for limited resource audiences (LRAs), was revised using social marketing theory to make it more appealing and relevant to LRAs (25-40 years). Focus groups and surveys identified the needs and preferences of LRAs. Needs were cooking, basic health, and…

Holding a bank account is crucial to the income-maximizing and asset-building of households. This study uses 2008 survey data of EITC-eligible households assisted at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites to document their tax filing behavior and use of Alternate Financial Services (AFS). Specifically, the differences in tax filing and AFS…

Increasingly, higher education institutions are realising that higher education could be regarded as a business-like service industry and they are beginning to focus more on meeting or even exceeding the needs of their students. Recent research findings suggest that the factors that create student satisfaction with teaching ("teaching…

In each period of a dynamic tax-rebate program, a (fixed) quantity tax is imposed on each unit of a given good, and the tax revenue is rebated back to the consumer in the next period. The program lasts for infinite number of periods. The author considers a representative consumer's dynamic consumption behavior, the long-run steady-state…

Congress created the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to reduce the number of uninsured children in low-income families that do not qualify for Medicaid. States have flexibility in structuring their SCHIP programs, and their income eligibility limits vary. Concerns have been raised that individuals might substitute SCHIP for…

The current focus on all things "green--greener--greenest" has found its way into the realm of continuing higher education through a proliferation of courses and programs. A recent Internet search on the phrase "sustainability certificate" produced over 7,600 results, reflecting a strong perceived or real demand. In this…

The primary purpose of government provided student financial aid is to increase college access by bringing the out-of-pocket price of attendance within reach of more students. The basic idea is quite straightforward. If a good or service costs $100 to buy and the government gives consumers a $50 subsidy, then consumers need only spend $50 of their…

In this paper we provide a comprehensive critical analysis of research that has investigated the impact of financial education programs on consumer financial behavior. In light of the evidence, we recommend that future programs be highly targeted towards a specific audience and area of financial activity (e.g. home-ownership or credit card…

In recent years, the price of college textbooks has become a growing concern for students and others who care about keeping college costs affordable. As policymakers and higher education systems explore the issue further, there are actions that can be taken immediately on college campuses to reduce the cost of textbooks. This brief presents…

Since 1960, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided estimates of expenditures on children from birth through age 17. This technical report presents the most recent estimates for husband-wife and single-parent families using data from the 1990-92 Consumer Expenditure Survey, updated to 2007 dollars using the Consumer Price Index. Data and…

Counterfeiting, which has always been somewhat of a problem in several different industry settings, has recently become an epidemic in the fashion industry. Widespread and seemingly endless counterfeiting of fashion goods is costing the industry millions of dollars in lost profits and tarnishing the image of many luxury brands. This article…

Intentional communities--groups of unrelated individuals who choose to live together, sharing such things in common as wealth, property, labour, food and a sense of identity and fellowship (Kamau 2002)--continue to serve as powerful points of resistance to the larger culture of consumption that permeates our modern world. Grounded in recent…

User experience (UX) research in the design of technology products utilizes human-centered design (HCD) methods to summarize and explain pertinent information about end users to designers. However, UX researchers cannot effectively communicate the needs and goals of users if designers do not find UX research (a) easy to integrate into design…

What factors lead working adults to initially enroll in graduate programs? Is the undergraduate degree no longer enough to sustain a rewarding career? Little is known as to why this segment of graduate students are building careers and pursuing advanced degrees simultaneously. Traditional institutions of higher learning have primarily focused on…

Purpose/Objectives: Schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) receive a portion of their annual federal funding as commodity entitlement foods--now called USDA Foods--rather than cash payments. Due to rising food prices in recent years, it has been recommended that schools compare the costs and benefits of commodity and…