Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Correlation Studies I Want To See

A study of relationship between support for the bailout and the following factors
  • financial knowledge/education
  • Age
  • Retirement savings as of January 1, 2008 (or some other relatively recent date prior to bailout talk)
  • Children
I'm actually interested in points two and three in the case where the long-run and short-run consequences of the bailout differ. My prior expectations:

If I am a young, just starting investor (as I actually am): I now have the opportunity to buy index funds on the cheap and get a great start. In this case I am opposed to the bailout if I think it helps in the short-run and is bad over the long-run. I am in favor of it if it helps over the long-run and hurts the short-run.

If I am at the end of my career with a lifetime of retirement savings: If the bailout helps the short-run but hurts the long, I probably tend to favor it after controlling for impacts on my offspring (the net of my larger bequeath against their lower lifetime savings).

No comments: