Encouraging consumers to seek out and switch to lower-rate mortgages is important both for the individual consumer's finances and for functioning competitive markets, but switching rates are low. We conducted an experiment with mortgage-holders to test whether official advice on how to select...

In this paper, we attempt to shed light on whether Japanese households are rational or if their behavior is influenced by culture and social norms by examining their saving and bequest behavior. To summarize our main findings, we find that Japan's household saving rate showed great volatility,...

Demographic changes, tight public budgets, and reduced generosity of occupational pension plans shift the responsibility for an adequate retirement provision towards the individual. Applying the theoretical perspectives of Behavioural Finance and New Institutionalism to the domain of retirement...

The possibility that individuals may derive utility from the mere fact of holding wealth has long been recognized. A simple intertemporal model featuring utility from accumulation is used here to examine consumption and savings, the choice between inter vivos gifts and bequests (both to...

We examine the effects of self-control mechanisms on saving behavior using the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), following the assumptions of research that analyzed the 1998 SCF. Self-control mechanisms include saving goals, foreseeable expenses, and saving rules. We find a positive effect...

Present bias is an important term in behavioral finance that is derived from the concept of self-control. Empirical research finds that present bias is associated with undesirable spending, borrowing, and saving behavior. Unlike previous research that focuses on one domain of financial behavior,...

Building on recent findings in psychology, we study the impact of subjective age identity (feeling younger or older than one's chronological age) on economic behaviors. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study we find: Individuals with a younger age identity have higher work engagement,...

This paper studies the role of goal bracketing to attenuate time inconsistency. When setting non-binding goals for a multi-stage project, an agent must also decide how and when to evaluate himself against such goals. In particular, he can bracket broadly by setting an aggregate goal for the...

Descriptive information of peers' behavior is used to nudge individuals to behave according to a norm. Yet, since such descriptive information is often a quantitative metric, it is possible that the behavioral change is due to anchoring. We disentangle peer and anchoring effects, and test...

Behavioral economics provides insights into how people process information and make decisions. It also helps to explain why and how people tend to make decisions that are not in their best interest, as opposed to what rational choice theory would suggest. This chapter provides an introduction to...