Nilton Porto

  • Associate Professor
  • Human Development and Family Science
  • Phone: 401.874.7135
  • Email: nilton_porto@uri.edu
  • Office Location: Transition Center, Rm 212

PLEASE NOTE: Dr. Nilton Porto will be accepting new doctoral graduate students for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Biography

Dr. Nilton Porto is an Associate Professor of Consumer Finance at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Health Sciences. Before transitioning to academia, he spent over a decade in various management roles within the banking industry, following the completion of his MBA at Case Western Reserve University. He later earned a doctorate in household economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

His research focuses on financial decision-making, consumer behavior, and financial well-being. He is a research affiliate at the Center for Financial Security at UW–Madison and a faculty affiliate at the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis. His work has received funding from the National Endowment for Financial Education, NIFA, and Real Jobs RI.

Dr. Porto’s contributions have been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the 2022 Best Paper Award from the Journal of Consumer Affairs, the 2016 and 2019 Best Financial Education Paper Awards from the National Endowment for Financial Education, and the 2016 Outstanding Paper Award from the Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal. He is a board member and past conference chair of the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI).

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2014
  • MBA, Case Western Reserve University, 1998
  • JD, Pontifical Catholic University, RS, 1995

Selected Publications

Porto, Nilton, Gary Mottola & Olivia Valdes. “Household Financial Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Instrumental Variable Approach.” Journal of Consumer Affairs (Accepted).

Cruz, Luiz Alves, Verónica Peñaloza, Nilton Porto, & Ting An. “The role of personal and cultural values on saving behavior: a cross-national analysis.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 45, no. 1/2 (2025): 257-273.

Kim, Kyoung Tae, Jing Jian Xiao, & Nilton Porto. “Financial inclusion, financial capability and financial fragility during COVID-19 pandemic.” International Journal of Bank Marketing 42, no. 3 (2024): 414-436.

Mandal, Bidisha, Nilton Porto, D. Elizabeth Kiss, Soo Hyun Cho, & Lorna Saboe‐Wounded Head. “Health insurance coverage during the COVID‐19 pandemic: The role of Medicaid expansion.” Journal of Consumer Affairs 57, no. 1 (2023): 296-319.

Xiao, Jing Jian, & Nilton Porto. “Financial capability and wellbeing of vulnerable consumers.” Journal of Consumer Affairs 56, no. 2 (2022): 1004-1018.
Porto, Nilton, Soo Hyun Cho, & Michael Gutter. “Student loan decision making: experience as an anchor.” Journal of Family and Economic Issues 42, no. 4 (2021): 773-784.

Porto, Nilton, Yu Huang, & Jing Jian Xiao. “Credit card adoption and usage in China: urban–rural comparisons.” The Singapore Economic Review 64, no. 01 (2019): 41-56.

Porto, Nilton, & J. Michael Collins. “The role of refund expectations in savings: Evidence from volunteer income tax preparation programs in the United States.” Journal of Consumer Affairs 51, no. 1 (2017): 183-199.

Porto, Nilton. “Financial Issues of Hispanic Americans” (2016) in Handbook of Consumer Finance Research (pp. 205-214). Springer International Publishing.

 

 

Download Curriculum Vitae(PDF)