Assets for Independence Evaluation

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is conducting an experimental evaluation of the Assets for Independence (AFI) Program. This evaluation-the first experimental evaluation of Individual Development Account (IDA) projects operating under the Assets for Independence Act-will contribute importantly to understanding the effects of IDA projects and IDA project features on participants. IDA programs provide matching funds to participants when the savings are withdrawn to spend on qualified asset purchases, most commonly homeownership, business-related expenses, or education. This study will build on the prior quasi-experimental AFI evaluation, as well as studies of other non-AFI funded Individual Development Account (IDA) projects. While some evaluations suggest that IDAs help low-income families save, rigorous experimental research is limited. No experimental evaluation of AFI-funded programs has been conducted to date. Of the quasi- or non-experimental studies, few have focused on AFI-funded IDAs. The evaluation is being conducted in two sites, with the random assignment of 299 AFI-eligible cases in one site and 509 cases in the other, for a total of 808 cases. Each site randomly assigned sample members to one of two groups: a control group and a treatment group receiving conventional AFI services. The primary research questions the study seeks to answer are: 1. What are the impacts of AFI program participation on the outcomes it is designed to address (e.g., savings and asset purchases)? 2. What are the impacts of AFI program participation on other outcome domains that the program might influence (e.g., material hardship, alternative financial product use, economic well-being)? 3. How do the impacts of AFI program participation vary over time and by participant characteristics? The study uses a two-armed (treatment vs. control) experimental design. This design allows the first two questions above to be a