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Who Needs and Who Wants Financial Education? a Study of the Characteristics of Mexican Immigrants Participating in a Financial Education Program in New York City

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Who Needs and Who Wants Financial Education? a Study of the Characteristics of Mexican Immigrants Participating in a Financial Education Program in New York City Who needs and who wants financial education? A study of the characteristics of Mexican immigrants participating in a financial education program in New York City. Adrian Franco Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2012 ©2012 Adrian Franco All rights reserved ABSTRACT Who needs and who wants financial education? A study of the characteristics of Mexican immigrants participating in a financial education program in New York City. Adrian Franco This dissertation explores the characteristics of first generation underserved Mexican immigrants participating in a community-based financial education program in New York City. According to the literature, this group is less likely than other ethnic groups in the United States to have a bank account and understand and utilize other financial services from the financial mainstream. This condition hinders its opportunities for financial stability and socioeconomic development. Using a mixed method study, this dissertation aims to respond who among the population of first generation underserved Mexican immigrants living in New York City decides to attend a voluntary community-based financial education program. This dissertation finds that there are demographic and socioeconomic characteristics that differentiate those participating in the financial education program from the population, and that these participants might not be the ones who need the program the most according to the literature. The results show that these participants are more likely to have a bank account and use other financial services before they start the program. They also possessed basic understanding of financial concepts and the financial system and decided to enroll in the program because they wanted assistance to better utilize the financial services they already have access to. This self-selection problem is consistent with recent research on the subject conducted with other populations. The analysis also shows that the community-based financial education program was successful in teaching lessons about budgeting. This dissertation does not find conclusive evidence that the financial education program led participants to take action to improve their participation in mainstream financial institutions. The data collected also show that the migration status and level of financial literacy differentiate those participating in the mainstream financial system from those who are not. This dissertation adds to the current scholarly discussion on the effectiveness of financial education programs and factors associated with financial literacy and participation in the mainstream financial institutions. Its findings have implications for financial educators, researchers and Mexican immigrants. It offers a series of recommendations for the development and assessment of financial education programs for Mexican immigrants in New York City and other underserved migrant communities. The study concludes that the majority of Mexican immigrants in New York City urgently need financial education, but a self-selected group that might not need it the most, is the one attending community-based programs on this subject. Therefore, financial education programs need to reach out to those that need the program the most and adjust their curricula to serve better those who are participating. Table of Contents List of charts………………………………………………………………………..ii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………vii Dedication……………………………………………………………………………ix Chapter I: Introduction…………………………………………………………….1 Chapter II: Literature review……………………………………………………...19 Chapter III: Methodology………………………………………………………….81 Chapter IV: Results of the Data Analysis…………………………………………109 Chapter V: Conclusions and implications………………………………………...213 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..257 Appendices………………………………………………………………………….282 i List of charts Chapter II: Literature review Table 1: Mexicans in New York City 2000-2005………………………………………..51 Table 2: Mexicans in New York City 2005-2010………………………………………..51 Table 3: Mexicans in New York City as a percentage of total population per boroughs 1990 -2009……………………………………………………………………….52 Table 4: A demographic portrait of Mexicans in New York City……………………….56 Chapter III: Methodology Table 1: Breakdown of participants according to ethnicity, attendance to financial education program and if they have a bank account…………………………………….86 Chapter IV: Results of the data analysis Table 1: Results of frequency analysis – Demographic characteristics………………….112 Table 2: Results of descriptive statistical analysis – Measures of central tendency….….114 Table 3: Results of frequency analysis – Indicators of participation in mainstream financial market……………………………………………………………..……………116 Table 4: Results of chi-square analysis – Financial education x place of residence……..118 ii Table 5: Results of chi-square analysis – Financial education x gender………………..119 Table 6: Results of chi-square analysis – Financial education x marital status…………121 Table 7: Results of chi-square analysis – Financial education x migration status………122 Table 8: Results of t-tests – Financial education x continuous variables………………..124 Table 9: Results of chi-square analysis – Financial education x bank account in US……126 Table 10: Results of chi-square analysis – Financial education x Use of bank to send remittances…………………………………………………………………………..127 Table 11: Results of chi-square analysis – Financial education x life insurance…….…...128 Table 12: Results of chi-square analysis – Financial education x health insurance………129 Table 13: Table 1: Results of frequency analysis – Demographic characteristics of interviewed participants……………………………………………………………………131 Table 14: Results of descriptive statistical analysis – Measures of central tendency of interviewed participants………………………………………………………….………...133 Table 15: Results of frequency analysis comparison – Hispanics and Mexicans in Data Set I (Financial literacy)……………………………………………………………...162 Table 16: Results of regression analysis – Model summary (All independent variables)…………………………………………………………………………………..164 iii Table 17: Results of regression analysis – Independent variables – Data Set I only………………………………………………………………………………………..165 Table 18: Results of frequency analysis comparison – Hispanics and Mexicans in Data Set I (Financial market participation)…………………………………………….167 Table 19: Results of frequency analysis comparison – Hispanics and Mexicans in Data Set I (Demographics)…………………………………………………………….171 Table 20: Results of linear regression – Model summary (all variables)………………...176 Table 21: Results of linear regression – Independent variables (all variables)…………..176 Table 22: Results of linear regression – Model summary (“literature-reviewed” variables)………………………………………………………………………………….178 Table 23: Results of linear regression – Independent variables (“literature-reviewed” variables)………………………………………………………………………………….178 Table 24: Results of linear regression – Model summary (Financial literacy), Mainstream………………………………………………………………………………..179 Table 25: Results of linear regression – Independent variable (Financial literacy), Mainstream………………………………………………………………………………..179 Table 26: Results of logistic regression – All independent variables x having a bank iv account……………………………………………………………………………………181 Table 27: Results of logistic regression – “Literature-reviewed” x having a bank account……………………………………………………………………………………182 Table 28: Results of logistic regression – Financial literacy x having a bank account…..182 Table 29: Results of logistic regression – All independent variables x having a credit card………………………………………………………………………………...183 Table 30: Results of logistic regression – “Literature-reviewed” x having a credit card………………………………………………………………………………..184 Table 31: Results of logistic regression – Financial literacy x having a credit card…….184 Table 32: Results of logistic regression – All independent variables x having an investment………………………………………………………………………………..185 Table 33: Results of logistic regression – “Literature-reviewed” x having an investment……………………………………………………………………………….186 Table 34: Results of logistic regression – Financial literacy x having an investment…..187 Table 35: Results of logistic regression – All independent variables x having health insurance..……………………………………………………………………………….188 v Table 36: Results of logistic regression – “Literature-reviewed” x having health insurance………………………………………………………………………………189 Table 37: Results of logistic regression – Financial literacy x having health insurance…………………………………………………………………………...….189 Table 38: Results of logistic regression – All independent variables x having tax preparation services..………………………………………………………………….190 Table 39: Results of logistic regression – “Literature-reviewed” x having tax preparation services…………………………………………………………………..192 Table 40: Results of logistic regression – Financial literacy x having tax preparation services…………………………………………………………………..192 Table 41: Results of Pearson correlation analysis…………………………………….193 vi Acknowledgements I want to acknowledge the contributions that some wonderful individuals had in the process of writing this dissertation and completing the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative and International Education. First of all, I want to thank the members of the dissertation committee, professors Francisco Rivera-Batiz, Hope Leichter, Regina Cortina, Anand Marri and Robert
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