How do Behavioral Approaches to Increase Savings Compare? Evidence from Multiple Interventions in the U.S Army

Speaker: A/Prof Bill Skimmyhorn, 
Affiliation: Raymond A. Mason School of Business
Location: Room 629, School of Economics Boardroom, Level 6, Colin Clark Building (#39), UQ St Lucia campus or, 
via Zoom link: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/82603079317

Abstract 

Information provision, choice simplification, social messaging, active-choice frameworks, and automatic enrollment all increase retirement savings. However, gauging the relative efficacy of these approaches is challenging because the supporting evidence spans widely different institutional settings, populations, and time periods. In this study, we leverage experimental and quasi-experimental variation in a constant setting, the U.S. military between 2016-2018, to examine the effects of nearly two dozen experiments for four leading policy options (i.e., information emails, action steps, target contribution rates, active choice, and automatic enrollment) designed to increase retirement savings. Consistent with previous literature, we find sizable effects of savings interventions on participation and cumulative contributions that increase with the intensity of the intervention. We then exploit cost data to complete the first cost-effectiveness analysis in the literature. Our analysis suggests that active choice programs are the most cost-effective method to generate new program participation and contributions for small firms, while automatic enrollment is more cost-effective for large and very large firms.   

About the presenter's visit 

If you would like to meet with A/Prof Skimmyhorn contact: Dr Andrea La Nauze