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The Federal Reserve Board 's Survey Of Consumer Finances Essay

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The Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is a triennial cross-sectional survey of U.S. families. The study is sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board in collaboration with the Department of the Treasury. The survey data include information on family incomes, net worth, balance sheet components, credit use, pensions, income, and demographic characteristics (Bricker, et al., 2014). A strong attempt is made to select families from all economic levels. In addition, information is also included from related surveys of pension providers and the earlier surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve Board. Data from the Survey of Consumer Finances is utilized by the Federal Reserve and other branches of the government to conduct analysis. In addition, economic research centers utilize the SCF to conduct scholarly work (Board of Governors, 2014).
In the study, “Easy Money or Hard Times? Health and 401(k) Loans”, Weller and Wenger (2012) examined whether health status and health insurance coverage could predict the likelihood of having a defined contribution (DC) loan using data from the Federal Reserve’s triennial Survey of Consumer Finances from 1989 to 2007. The SCF provided detailed information on household assets and debts, including DC loans. The analysis focused on households between the ages of 25 and 64. The data are all survey based with households as the unit of analysis. All demographic characteristics, such as educational level, race, and age refer to the

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