We design and administer a financial literacy test tailored to a specific defined contribution plan. We find that participants show fairly good knowledge of the basic mechanics of the plan, but are unable to differentiate among various investment options. Knowledge is particularly low among...

We analyze the long-standing “annuity puzzle” through the lens of behavioral economics. We provide novel evidence that lessens the extent of the puzzle and shed some additional light on the real drivers of the decision to annuitize. Last, we discuss the policy implications of our findings

One of the critical challenges facing the 50 generation is deciding how to plan for retirement financing, how to convert assets into income and, generally, how to make sensible financial decisions for the next stage of their lives. Considering how complicated retirement planning and finance can...

This study releases assumptions on previous borrowers' mortgage choice under information asymmetric: exogenously known default risk and lenders' zero profit. Through maximizing borrowers' life-time utilities in housing and non-housing consumption, simulation results show that borrowers'...

Saving for retirement is fraught with risk and uncertainty. For those not privileged by participation in a defined benefit pension plan, the issue is made complex and problematic by the failure of inherited decision rules: the options available are variable in terms of their costs and possible...

This paper uses a novel experimental design to test for the role of experience and information in insurance take-up in rural China, where weather insurance was a new and highly subsidized product. We randomly select a group of poor households to play insurance games and find that it improves the...

A unique Finnish household-level data from 1994 to 2009 allow us to measure how households' financial expectations are related to the subsequent outcomes. We use the difference between the two to measure forecast errors and household optimism and link the errors to households' borrowing...

I solve the life-cycle portfolio allocation problem of a disappointment averse (DA) agent with labor income risk. DA preferences overweight disappointing outcomes and are consistent with behavior highlighted by the Allais paradox. I show that unlike constant relative risk aversion (CRRA)...

Why do we save? Do saving decisions reflect personal needs to achieve goals in one's life? This study examined the influence of six saving goals constructed both from Life-cycle hypothesis, and Maslow's hierarchical theory of human needs. Even though traditional goals, such as retirement savings...

Using a high-stakes field experiment conducted with a financial brokerage, we implement a novel design to separately identify two channels of social influence in financial decisions, both widely studied theoretically. When someone purchases an asset, his peers may also want to purchase it, both...