Working Paper

How Wealth and Age Interact to Affect Entrepreneurship

Philippe d’Astous,
Slava Mikhed,
Sahil Raina &
Barry Scholnick

January 2025

WP 25-03 – Using wealth windfalls from lottery winnings and matched employer-employee tax files, we compare the effect of additional wealth on the entrepreneurial activity of older and younger individuals.

We find that additional wealth leads older winners (aged 55 and older) to reduce business ownership and scale. In contrast, additional wealth leads younger winners to increase business ownership and performance. We also show that extra lottery wealth reduces the wage labor supply of both younger and older individuals. Thus, while younger lottery winners reduce wage labor to increase entrepreneurship, older lottery winners reduce both wage labor and entrepreneurship to retire.

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CFI in Focus: Incentives and Debt Repayment in Consumer Bankruptcy

Slava Mikhed,
Sahil Raina,
Barry Scholnick &
Man Zhang

16 Sep ’24

CFI in Focus – In this article, we summarize findings from two recent studies on how requiring higher debt repayment to creditors in bankruptcy can lead to unintended consequences.

Consumer Credit

Working Paper

Debtor Income Manipulation in Consumer Credit Contracts

Slava Mikhed,
Sahil Raina,
Barry Scholnick &
Man Zhang

Revised: December 2023

WP 22-35/R – We show that forcing insolvent consumer debtors to repay a larger fraction of debt causes them to strategically manipulate the data they report to creditors.

Consumer Credit

Working Paper

Missouri’s Medicaid Contraction and Consumer Financial Outcomes

Revised February 2023

WP 20-42/R – In July 2005, the state of Missouri implemented a series of cuts to its Medicaid program. These cuts resulted in the elimination of the Medical Assistance for Workers with Disabilities program, more stringent eligibility requirements, and less generous Medicaid coverage for eligible individuals.