Mathieu Despard

Biographic Data

ID305068
NAMEMathieu Despard
GIVEN NAMESMathieu
FAMILY NAMEDespard
SIGNATUREDESPARD M
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro
ORCID0000-0001-7590-7908
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS29
TOTAL CITATIONS69
AUTHOR COUNT29
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1995
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX4

  • Safety Net(works): Informal Financial Support Networks and Financial Hardship During the Covid-19 Pandemic

    Open AccessLaura J Brugger, Samuel Roll et al.ARTICLEJournal of Family and Economic…2026

    Informal financial support networks can potentially mitigate hardships associated with income loss. This study examines patterns of informal financial support receipt during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores how such support may have mitigated hardships due to pandemic-related job or income loss. Using a national sample of U.S. adults (n = 3874) who completed a survey during the first year of the pandemic, we descriptively examine patterns in in…

  • The Impacts of the Child Tax Credit on Financial Resilience and the Use of High-Cost Financial Resources: Evidence from a Panel Survey

    Open AccessSamuel Roll, Haotian Zheng et al.ARTICLEJournal of the Society for Social…2024

  • Making a way out of no way: The importance of improving financial instability among African American kinship care families

    Open AccessTyreasa Washington, Mathieu DespardARTICLEChildren and Youth Services Review2024Cited by: 2References: 51

  • Financial technology (Fintech): A social work response

    Open AccessSally A Hageman, Mathieu DespardARTICLEInternational Social Work2024References: 1

    Financial social work extends inclusion by providing clients access to financial products, services, and technology. We summarize evidence about how financial technology impacts economic inequality and discuss implications for social work practice, education, and policy

  • Democratizing the Economy or Introducing Economic Risk? Gig Work During the Covid-19 Pandemic

    Open AccessDaniel Auguste, Samuel Roll et al.ARTICLEWork and Occupations2024Cited by: 3References: 42

    Though the growth of the gig economy has coincided with increased economic precarity in the new economy, we know less about the extent to which gig work (compared with other self-employment arrangements and non-gig work) may fuel economic insecurity among American households. We fill this gap in the literature by drawing on a sample of 4,756 workers from a unique national survey capturing economic hardships among non-standard workers like app- an…

  • Nothing to show for it: Financial Distress and Re-Enrollment Aspirations for those with non-degreed debt

    Open AccessJ Jabbari, Mathieu Despard et al.ARTICLEResearch in Higher Education2023

  • Does Frequency or Amount Matter? An Exploratory Analysis the Perceptions of Four Universal Basic Income Proposals

    Open AccessLindsay Hamilton, Mathieu Despard et al.ARTICLESocial Sciences2023References: 12

    Advocates for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) argue that it would provide citizens with a basic foundation for financial security, boost the economy, alleviate poverty, encourage entrepreneurship, reduce crime, and insulate the employment sector against job losses due to automation. Still, the idea lags in popularity in the United States compared to existing cash policies such as the annual Earned Income Tax Credit and one-time COVID-19 relief pac…

  • Emergency Savings among Persistently Poor Households: Evidence from a Field Experiment

    Open AccessSamuel Roll, Mathieu Despard et al.ARTICLESocial Work Research2023References: 9

    Low-income households struggle to accumulate emergency savings, which increases economic vulnerability in the face of unexpected events like expensive car repairs. This vulnerability may be even greater among persistently low-income households, which might benefit most from building emergency savings using tax refunds. This study examined the effects of randomly assigned behavioral interventions that incorporated a choice architecture manipulatio…

  • How Would Americans Respond to Direct Cash Transfers? Results from Two Survey Experiments

    Samuel Roll, Stephen Roll et al.ARTICLESocial Service Review2023Cited by: 1References: 3

    Universal basic income has gained renewed interest among policy makers and researchers in the United States. Although research indicates that unconditional cash transfers produce diverse benefits for households, public support lags in part because of predicted unemployment and frivolous spending. To understand how Americans would reorganize their lives around unconditional cash transfers, this article examines the relationship between the structu…

  • Student Debt Forgiveness and Economic Stability, Social Mobility, and Quality-of-Life Decisions: Results from a Survey Experiment

    Open AccessJ Jabbari, Samuel Roll et al.ARTICLESocius Sociological Research for…2023Cited by: 1References: 34

    As policymakers grapple with whether or not to forgive student debt, for who, and how much, it is important to explore how student debt forgiveness would relate to intended household decisions and behaviors. We conducted a survey experiment that asked participants with student debt to imagine a scenario in which the federal government forgave a certain amount of student debt. We then had these participants report on how this would affect their de…

  • The Precarity of Self-Employment among Low- and Moderate-Income Households

    Open AccessDaniel Auguste, Samuel Roll et al.ARTICLESocial Forces2023Cited by: 3References: 41

    Many people in the United States have achieved economic stability through self-employment and are often seen as embracing the entrepreneurial spirit and seizing opportunity. Yet, research also suggests that self-employment may be precarious for many people in the lower socioeconomic strata. Drawing on a unique dataset that combines longitudinal survey data with administrative tax data for a sample of low- and moderate-income (LMI) workers, we bri…

  • Household Spending Patterns and Hardships during Covid-19: A Comparative Study of the U.S. and Israel

    Open AccessSamuel Roll, Yung Chun et al.ARTICLEJournal of Family and Economic…2022

  • Timely and well-targeted financial help during Covid-19: An employer-community partnership for hotel workers in New Orleans

    Mathieu Despard, Selina Miller et al.ARTICLECommunity Work & Family2022References: 4

    Economic disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic left many households without the income necessary to meet basic needs. We describe an innovative, community-based partnership between a financial services company, philanthropic funders, and employers to provide financial assistance to hotel workers in New Orleans who lost jobs and income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from a survey of 1,056 hotel workers show that workers experienced l…

  • Material Hardship among Lower-Income Households: The Role of Liquid Assets and Place

    Mathieu Despard, Valerie Taing et al.ARTICLEJournal of Poverty2021Cited by: 2References: 5

    Lower income households are at risk for material hardship, particularly amidst the economic fallout of COVID-19. Where one lives (e.g., suburb, small town) may affect this risk due to variable access to resources, yet the evidence is mixed concerning the influence of place. We used a pooled, national cross-sectional sample of 66,046 lower-income tax filers to examine differences in material hardship in rural, small town, micropolitan, and urban a…

  • Why Do Households Lack Emergency Savings? The Role of Financial Capability

    Open AccessMathieu Despard, T Friedline et al.ARTICLEJournal of Family and Economic…2020

  • Employee financial wellness programs: Opportunities to promote financial inclusion

    Mathieu Despard, Ellen Frank-Miller et al.ARTICLEJournal of Community Practice2020Cited by: 3References: 26

    Employee financial wellness programs (EFWPs) are a new practice that may promote financial inclusion by making it easier for workers with low- and moderate-incomes (LMI) to access financial services. We examine the strengths and limitations of workplace financial counseling, credit-building services, and small-dollar loans, and describe community collaboration to promote employee financial wellness. Findings suggest that these services are reachi…

  • Does the composition of financial services in a community relate to an Individual’s savings account ownership

    T Friedline, Mathieu Despard et al.ARTICLEJournal of Community Practice2019Cited by: 11References: 52

    This study extends research on financial inclusion by exploring the composition of financial services within communities. Using propensity-score-adjusted probit regression, we explored associations with savings account ownership using restriscted-access, cross-sectional data from the 2015 National Financial Capability Study with merged financial services and community demographic data. Living in communities where the density of banks and credit u…

  • Financial Shocks, Liquid Assets, and Material Hardship in Low- and Moderate-Income Households: Differences by Race

    Open AccessMathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Wei et al.ARTICLEJournal of Economics Race and…2018Cited by: 9References: 14

  • The Mediating Role of Assets in Explaining Hardship Risk among Households Experiencing Financial Shocks

    Open AccessMathieu Despard, Mathieu R Despard et al.ARTICLESocial Work Research2018Cited by: 12References: 10

    Journal Article The Mediating Role of Assets in Explaining Hardship Risk among Households Experiencing Financial Shocks Get access Mathieu R Despard, Mathieu R Despard Address correspondence to Mathieu R. Despard, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130; e-mail: [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Shenyang Guo, Sh…

  • Predictors of Capacity-Building Needs Among Nongovernmental Organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Mathieu Despard, Mathieu R Despard et al.ARTICLEJournal of Community Practice2018Cited by: 2References: 27

    Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play important roles in social development in the Global South. However, little evidence exists concerning NGOs’ capacity-building needs. We sought to understand organizational and network factors that explain capacity-building needs. Using an online survey of 282 NGOs in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria, we found high levels of capacity-building need, particularly concerning resource development. Using multivariate …

  • Effects of a Tax-Time Savings Experiment on Material and Health Care Hardship among Low-Income Filers

    Mathieu Despard, Samuel H Taylor et al.ARTICLEJournal of Poverty2017Cited by: 2References: 9

    Material and health care hardship is common among households with low incomes and is associated with a host of adverse outcomes but can be mitigated with having savings. The authors assessed the effects of online tax-time savings interventions informed by behavioral economics on hardship among a sample of low- and moderate-income tax filers (N = 4,738). The authors find that filers who received an intervention had a statistically significant, low…

  • Do Tax-Time Savings Deposits Reduce Hardship Among Low-Income Filers? A Propensity Score Analysis

    Open AccessMichal Grinstein-Wei, Mathieu Despard et al.ARTICLEJournal of the Society for Social…2016Cited by: 3References: 6

    Objective: A lack of emergency savings renders low-income households vulnerable to material hardships resulting from unexpected expenses or loss of income. Having emergency savings helps these households respond to unexpected events, maintain consumption, and avoid high-cost credit products. Because many low-income households receive sizable federal tax refunds, tax time is an opportunity for these households to allocate a portion of refunds to s…

  • Student debt and hardship: Evidence from a large sample of low- and moderate-income households

    Open AccessMathieu Despard, Dana C Perantie et al.ARTICLEChildren and Youth Services Review2016Cited by: 4References: 45

  • Preventive Policy Strategy for Banking the Unbanked: Savings Accounts for Teenagers

    T Friedline, Mathieu Despard et al.ARTICLEJournal of Poverty2015References: 4

    Concern over percentages of unbanked and underbanked households in the United States and their lack of connectedness to the financial mainstream has led to policy strategies geared toward reaching these households. Using nationally-representative longitudinal data, a preventive strategy for banking households is tested that asks whether young adults are more likely to be banked and own a diversity of financial assets when they are connected to th…

  • Financial Capabilities: Multilevel Modeling of the Impact of Internal and External Capabilities of Rural Households

    Gina Chowa, D Ansong et al.ARTICLESocial Work Research2014Cited by: 4References: 3

    In recent years, discussion about the financial capability of rural households has increased. Although studies have conceptualized what financial capability means, there is a dearth of empirical evidence that addresses how the different components of financial capability interact to improve savings outcomes, especially in rural households in sub-Saharan Africa. In this article, the authors use data from an asset-building project in Masindi, Ugand…