We report the results of two laboratory experiments that study how university student and staff participants chose retirement savings investment options using ‘user-friendly' information prescribed by regulators. We demonstrate that choices of more than 20% of participants cannot be predicted...

This paper studies the dynamic behavior of asset prices using a chartist - fundamentalist model with two speculative markets. To this effect, we employ a differential system with delays similar to Dibeh (2007) to describe the price dynamics and we assume that the two markets are coupled via...

Low levels of non-default decision making among superannuation members in Australia are assumed to be evidence of lack of interest and capability. Using member records and survey data from a large Australian superannuation fund we test the relationship between attitudes towards retirement...

Do traumatic past life events - such as experiencing hunger - influence financial risk-taking in older age and what is the mechanism underlying this link? To answer these questions, we use micro data from 13 European countries and investigate the decision to own risky financial assets, defined...

Simplified disclosures can make comparisons between complex financial products easier, and increase consumer expertise. We use incentivized experiments to investigate whether and to what extent simpler information on fees and investment returns assists retirement plan members to make competent...

National saving rates differ enormously across developed countries. But these differences obscure a common trend, namely a dramatic decline over time. France and Italy, for example, saved over 17 percent of national income in 1970, but less than 7 percent in 2006. Japan saved 30 percent in 1970,...

In a 1-year randomized controlled trial involving thousands of university students, we provide real-time private feedback on relative performance in a semester-long online assignment. Within this setup, our experimental design cleanly identifies the behavioral response to rank incentives (i.e.,...

This study examines the causal effect of being socially active on old age cognition, using harmonized data from 18 European countries. We handle the endogeneity of social participation via nonparametric partial identification methods that bound the average treatment effect while using fairly...