Faculty-Student Research Examines Financial Well-being During the Holiday Season

With the holidays approaching, Luisa Blanco, professor of public policy, has released timely research with the Julian Bond Institute examining the rise of financial stress many families experience during this time of year. Completed within Blanco’s Collaborative Behavioral (COBE) Insights Lab dedicated to producing policy-relevant research, the study found that California-based Hispanic families of all income levels experience holiday-related stress but for varying reasons. 

While holiday stress was noted as widespread, the study revealed that lower-income adults attributed their unease to low funds, whereas higher-income adults cited their anxiety to overspending. For Blanco, these findings will help illuminate often-overlooked income disparities in everyday money-related stress and inform policies and initiatives which expand financial inclusion and access to financial education.

“We really want our research to have important insights for improving the financial well-being and health outcomes of individuals in the United States with a focus on low- and moderate-income families,” she says. “With the COBE Lab, my interest is doing research that matters.”

Turning Findings into Action

According to Blanco, research is a much-needed tool for effective policy-making oriented towards human flourishing.  

Data collection spanned four rounds of monthly surveys conducted with the assistance of Blanco’s research team: Master of Public Policy students Philip Husband, Nataly Luna and Enrique Torres. Participants were evaluated by the widely-used Financial Health Score (FHS) which tracks dimensions of financial behavior such spending, saving, borrowing, and planning to combine them into a single score from 0 to 100. 

Blanco sought to gain concrete evidence on how financial stress bleeds into overall well-being. To this end, the team also measured participants’ general stress and anxiety levels, examining how stress spilled over into their physical health, mental health, family life, and work or school.

“The most meaningful part of this research is knowing that it will be carried forward,” says Luna who has partnered with Blanco on a number of research projects beyond this recent effort.

Blanco (middle) involved at a local community event related to policy leadership and financial planning among Hispanic communities

For Husband, who plans to pursue a PhD in economics, the project served as instrumental in developing his research skills. He attests that this research taught him how to present aggregate survey responses and how to use results to decide which questions to investigate next. Currently Husband is involved in additional projects with Blanco, including research on the Retirement Knowledge Scale. This measure of retirement preparedness was developed by Blanco and Ron Hays, professor of medicine and a professor of health policy and management at University of California Los Angeles, then fielded in the Health and Retirement Study, the Understanding America Study, and the Pew Trusts Wealth and Building Study.

Luna has contributed to other COBE Lab projects, including My Money Plus, which supported financial literacy with digital financial platforms. That work led her to diversify her skills, including trying her hand at marketing through video production with Artificial Intelligence  and at coding alongside the research itself.

A Lab for Greater Purpose

Mexican-American herself, Blanco’s research is driven by a greater purpose to improve the lives of communities whose experiences she understands firsthand and through valuable partnerships with community organizations. 

Blanco (right) with Malibu community leaders

Under Blanco’s leadership, the COBE Lab continues to investigate a wide range of real-world challenges from financial well-being and retirement preparedness to health outcomes in underserved populations. Beyond a wealth of scholarly publications, Blanco brings these issues to wider audiences through public speaking engagements and media appearances, including a recent feature on Univision’s prime-time news.

One example of the lab’s community impact is YoPlaneoMi Retiro, a project led by Blanco and her team that explored retirement savings among Hispanic women. Through social media advertisements promoting retirement planning, the researchers found that several participants were motivated to open retirement savings accounts during subsequent educational workshops. Partnering with the Capital Group, Blanco then crafted a novel digital program to educate people about retirement preparedness tailored to the informational needs of latinos. 

“At SPP, we never forget that there’s a ‘public’ in ‘public policy.’ The research initiatives of the COBE Lab demonstrate how rigorous research can measurably improve people's lives,” says Pete Peterson, (MPP '07), dean of the School of Public Policy (SPP). “Professor Blanco’s work exemplifies the importance of understanding the real challenges individuals and families face. I look forward to seeing how her research continues to make a meaningful difference.”

Learn more about COBE lab.