Contact Information
paul.a.smith@frb.gov

Fields of Interest
Consumption
Portfolio Choice
Health, Education, and Welfare

Education
Ph.D., Public Economics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1997
M.S., Public Economics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1993
B.A., Economics, University of Vermont, 1991

Professional Experience
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2003-present
Financial Economist, U.S. Dept. of Treasury, 1997-2003

Selected Publications

• Borrowing from Yourself: 401(k) Loans and Household Balance Sheets (with Geng Li), Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2008-42. Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2008.
• ''The Trajectory of Wealth in Retirement'' (with David Love and Michael Palumbo), Journal of Public Economics (forthcoming).
• ''A New Look at the Wealth Adequacy of Older U.S. Households'' (with David Love and Lucy McNair), Review of Income and Wealth (forthcoming).
• ''Neighbors Matter: Causal Community Effects and Stock Market Participation'' (with Jeffrey Brown, Zoran Ivkovich, and Scott Weissbenner), Journal of Finance, vol. 63 (June 2008), pp. 1499-1522.
• The Trajectory of Wealth in Retirement (with David Love and Michael Palumbo), Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2008-13. Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2008.
• A New Look at the Wealth Adequacy of Older U.S. Households (with David Love and Lucy McNair), Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2008-20. Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2008.
• Does Health Affect Portfolio Choice? (with David Love), Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-45. Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2007.
• Why Do Firms Offer Risky Defined Benefit Pension Plans? (with David Love and David Wilcox), Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-36. Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2007.
• Do Households Have Enough Wealth for Retirement? (with David Love and Lucy McNair), Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-17. Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2007.
• ''Measuring Dissaving out of Retirement Wealth'' (with David Love), Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Taxation, vol. 99 (Winter 2007), pp. 102-113.
• ''Cracking Open the Nest Egg: IRA Withdrawals and Retirement Finance'' (with Andrew Bershadker), Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Taxation, vol. 98 (Winter 2006), pp. 73-83.
• ''Taxable Capital Income and Lifetime Savings Accounts'' (with Peter J. Brady), Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Taxation, vol. 97 (Winter 2005), pp. 459-467.
• ''Social Security at 70: Principles, Issues, and Alternatives'' (with Julia L. Coronado), National Tax Journal, vol. 58 (September 2005), pp. 505-22.
• The Geography of Stock Market Participation: The Influence of Communities and Local Firms (with Jeffrey R. Brown, Zoran Ivkovic, and Scott Weisbenner), Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-22. Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2004.
• ''What Explains Early Withdrawals from Retirement Accounts? Evidence from a Panel of Taxpayers'' (with Gene Amromin), National Tax Journal, vol. 56 (September 2003), pp. 595-612.