The Hidden Relationship Cost of Living Without Slack (opens in new tab)

A new study published in the Journal of Health Economics begins with an event so ordinary that most of us would never notice it. A paycheck arrives a few days early because a holiday falls on the wrong date. That's it. Nobody loses a job. Nobody files for bankruptcy. Nobody discovers a secret gambling addiction. The household receives exactly the same amount of money it was expecting. Yet researchers found that these small disruptions in the timing of income were associated with measurable in...