ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the associations between savings outcomes and the institutional aspects of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Regression analysis provides estimates of the sign, size, and statistical significance of associations between a savings outcome and a given institutional aspect of IDAs. Cross-tabs are a simple way to associate a characteristic with a savings outcome. The chapter also discusses the precision of the estimated associations between savings outcomes and the characteristics of programs and participants partly in terms of their statistical significance. Statistical significance indicates the likelihood that an estimated association does not represent the population but rather merely a particular, non-representative sample. The chapter presents a rationale for financial education, reviews the goals of financial education, summarizes research on the effectiveness of financial education in 401(k) plans, and discusses financial education in American Dream Demonstration (ADD). IDA programs in ADD provided two types of financial education, general and asset-specific.
