Unknown

Last registered on November 23, 2013

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Save More Later and Particularly after Your Next Birthday: The Effect of Procrastination on Retirement Savings
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000114
First published
November 23, 2013, 2:47 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Harvard Business School
PI Affiliation
The Wharton School
PI Affiliation
The Wharton School

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2013-10-04
End date
2014-06-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Can higher savings be generated using behavioral economics insights regarding procrastination? With five U.S. universities and a large national record keeper, we will randomize mailings sent to university employees encouraging increased retirement savings. Mailings will allow employees to increase savings by completing a simple form. We will randomly assign eligible employees to receive one of several different mailings. Some recipients will be encouraged to increase savings immediately. Others will be able to choose whether to increase savings immediately or at a time delay (e.g., “in three months”). A third group will receive mailings identical to those in the second group, except the time delay option will correspond to increasing savings on a meaningful future date (e.g., “on your next birthday”). This experiment will test whether an option to enroll “later” increases savings by leveraging individuals’ tendency to prefer putting off virtuous behaviors, as well as whether a salient “later” date can be particularly motivating.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Beshears, John et al. 2013. "Save More Later and Particularly after Your Next Birthday: The Effect of Procrastination on Retirement Savings." AEA RCT Registry. November 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.114-1.0
Former Citation
Beshears, John et al. 2013. "Save More Later and Particularly after Your Next Birthday: The Effect of Procrastination on Retirement Savings." AEA RCT Registry. November 23. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/114/history/615
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2013-10-04
Intervention End Date
2013-11-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Registration for the corresponding university's Retirement Plan and Amount contributed to retirement plan.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will conduct a large-scale field experiment in collaboration with five U.S. universities and a large national record keeper. Eligible employees will be contacted by mail and be encouraged to increase their retirement savings.We will randomly assign eligible employees to receive one of a few different mailings.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Random assignment will be conducted by a computer.
Randomization Unit
University
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
26,431 employees
Sample size: planned number of observations
26,431 employees
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
About one third of employees in each of the three conditions.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Pennsylvania
IRB Approval Date
2013-10-01
IRB Approval Number
817560

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials