August 2024
30Aug

Improving Pension Information: Experimental Evidence on Learning Using Online Resources

By Denise Laroze, Gabriela Fajardo, Charles Noussair, Ximena Quintanilla, Paulina Granados, Pedro Vallette, Mauricio López-Tapia Deciding what to do with one's pension funds is a high-stakes, one-shot decision. Retirement schemes are often described in technical jargon that few people understand. We consider whether the learning process can be eased by providing information in video format (vs. the standard textual format) and by changes to the user interface of the websites on which individuals learn about their pension options. The results...

August 30, 2024
System Characterization, ,
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30Aug

Improving Pension Information: Experimental Evidence on Learning Using Online Resources

By Denise Laroze, Gabriela Fajardo, Charles Noussair, Ximena Quintanilla, Paulina Granados, Pedro Valette & Mauricio López-Tapia Deciding what to do with one's pension funds is a high-stakes, one-shot decision. Retirement schemes are often described in technical jargon that few people understand. We consider whether the learning process can be eased by providing information in video format (vs. the standard textual format) and by changes to the user interface of the websites on which individuals learn about their pension options. The...

August 30, 2024
Articles, System Characterization, ,
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28Aug

US. Wealthier workers benefit most from retirement savings ‘nudges’

In the U.S. and U.K. alike, there is growing concern that people aren’t saving enough for retirement. In the U.S. specifically, around 20% of adults age 50 or over report having nothing saved for retirement, according to a recent AARP survey. Nudging behaviors — such as automatic enrollment or auto-escalation in a 401(k) plan — have historically been popular among policymakers to get people to save. However, there has been little investigation into how people adjust their spending patterns when more money is taken...

August 28, 2024
News,
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23Aug

A Wealth of Well-Being: A Holistic Approach to Behavioral Finance

By Meir Statman In A Wealth of Well-Being: A Holistic Approach to Behavioral Finance, Professor Meir Statman, established thought leader in behavioral finance, explores how life well-being, the overarching aim of individuals in the third generation of behavioral finance, is underpinned by financial well-being, and how life well-being extends beyond financial well-being to family, friendship, religion, health, work, and education. Combining recent scientific findings by scholars in finance, economics, law, medicine, psychology, and sociology with real-life stories at the intersection of finances and...

August 23, 2024
Books, Books, ,
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July 2024
05Jul

Changing Retirement Incentives and Retirement in the US

By Courtney Coile Employment rates of older Americans have been rising since the 1990s. While the US is fairly unique among advanced economies in not experiencing any large-scale pension reforms in recent decades, there have been multiple changes to Social Security policy that have strengthened the incentive to work at older ages. This study builds on prior work documenting the changes in retirement incentives over time to explore the effect of these changes on retirement behavior, using over two decades...

July 5, 2024
Articles, Pension design, , , ,
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June 2024
13Jun

UK. Auto-enrolment ambitions must go above and beyond just pensions

If I were to point to the most sensible decision made in pensions policy in the last 20 years, the introduction of auto-enrolment (AE) in 2012 would no doubt top the list. In one swoop, the mandatory law made saving for retirement the norm and improved the chances of maintaining a decent standard of living in later life for millions of employees. Of course, AE was never supposed to be the last word. It was meant to be the beginning of...

June 13, 2024
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07Jun

A Wealth of Well-Being: A Holistic Approach to Behavioral Finance

By Meir Statman I often note that the biggest risks in life are not in the stock market. If you want real risk, I say, get married. And if you want more risk, have children. People laugh, because the point is obvious. Yet that point is regularly lost when we speak about financial well-being, neglecting life well-being. I was motivated to write my book, “A Wealth of Well-Being, by reflecting on my own financial and life well-being and those of...

June 7, 2024
Articles, Pension design, , ,
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May 2024
31May

Improving Pension Information: Experimental Evidence on Learning Using Online Resources

By Denise Laroze, Charles Noussair, Gabriela Fajardo, Ximena Quintanilla, Paulina Granados, Pedro Vallette & Mauricio López Tapia When planning for retirement, deciding what to do with one's pension funds is a high-stakes, one-shot decision. It is often described in technical jargon that few people understand. Not surprisingly, individuals find the pension selection process stressful. As a consequence, many pay for advice or miss out on benefits they are eligible for because of the opacity of the retirement process. We consider...

May 31, 2024
Articles, Pension design, , ,
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February 2024
02Feb

Redistributive effects of pension reforms: who are the winners and losers?

By Miguel Sánchez-Romero, Philip Schuster & Alexia Prskawetz As the heterogeneity in life expectancy by socioeconomic status increases, many pension systems imply a wealth transfer from short- to long-lived individuals. Various pension reforms aim to reduce inequalities that are caused by ex-ante differences in life expectancy. However, these pension reforms may induce redistribution effects. We introduce a dynamic general equilibrium-overlapping generations model with heterogeneous individuals that differ in their education, labor supply, lifetime income, and life expectancy. Within this framework we...

February 2, 2024
Articles, System Sustainability, ,
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January 2024
16Jan

Data Shows That Saving for Retirement Isn’t a Popular New Year’s Resolution. Here’s Why.

Now on the one hand, it's easy to see why a goal like paying off debt might trump funding a 401(k) or IRA. If you're staring at a credit card balance with a 20% interest rate attached to it, you're going to want to do your best to knock out that debt as soon as possible. Similarly, if you have no money (or little money) set aside for emergency expenses, then it's easy to see why you'd first work...

January 16, 2024
News,
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