Both theory and recent empirical evidence on nudging suggest that observability of behavior acts as an instrument for …

A large fraction of households have very little savings buffer and are therefore vulnerable to financial shocks. This … link to a personal web page where they can start or adjust an automatic savings plan. However, analyzing detailed bank data …, we find no treatment effect on actual savings, neither in the short run nor in the long run. Our null findings are quite …

Implicit contracts can mitigate moral hazard in labor, credit and product markets. The enforcement mechanism underlying …-generating resources provided by the principal. For example, in credit markets with weak creditor protection borrowers may be able to … contracting: it leads to a more frequent breakdown of credit relationships as well as to smaller loans. …

By means of a laboratory experiment, we show that, contrary to standard consumer theory, financially equivalent balance … gains and report greater propensities to consume. A standard optimal consumption choice model, enriched with a rational but …

psychology and economic theory literature on the causes and consequences of status-seeking behaviour. It integrates the idea in a …

individual’s intrinsic ability and on an external variable. We analyze the mistakes made by decision-makers who hold inaccurate … prior beliefs about their ability. Overconfident individuals take too much credit for their successes and excessively blame … variable environments and revise their self-confidence over time. In contrast, underconfident decision-makers might be trapped …

We study the optimal design of information nudges for present-biased consumers who have to make sequential consumption … consumer-optimal information nudge that is of cutoff type, recommending consumption or abstinence according to the magnitude of …