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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
One-third of the sample will be offered accounts with a hard, fixed, and mandatory withdrawal restriction feature (henceforth referred to as “hard commitment”); one-third of the sample will be offered accounts with a soft, flexible, and optional withdrawal restriction feature (henceforth referred to as “soft commitment”); and one-third will be offered hard commitment accounts, but after account activation, their accounts will be switched to become soft commitment accounts. The spousal information treatment and incentive payments will be cross-randomized.
Account choice: After we explain the two forms of liquidity restrictions (hard and soft), we will inform study participants of the incentive levels being offered for each form of account (e.g. if they choose a hard commitment account they will be offered an opening bonus of X, and if they choose a soft commitment account they will be offered an opening bonus of Y). We also explain that they won’t necessarily receive their choice, but rather, will have a two-thirds chance of receiving their choice, and a one-third chance of receiving the other product. They will then be asked to declare their choice. Half of the sample will be asked to declare their choice in the presence of their spouse, and the other half will declare their choice privately, such that their spouse cannot hear it. X and Y will be randomly varied, independently of each other, across study participants.
Account offer and take-up: After study participants declare their preferred account (hard or soft commitment), we will randomize which account they are offered, with the randomization weighted by their declared preference. Then they will be offered the account to which they have been randomized and asked whether they wish to take-up this account. For half of the sample, this will be done in the presence of their spouse, and for the other half this will be done privately, such that their spouse cannot hear what account is offered nor whether they chose to take up the account. For those who wish to take-up the account, a team will be in place to immediately assist them with completing all steps associated with account opening and set-up.
Target-setting: The hard commitment group will be required to put in place a target during account opening. The target can either be an amount, or a date. When a target is in place, an account holder is unable to withdraw funds from the m-savings account until the target is achieved. The soft commitment group will be offered the opportunity to put a target in place during account opening but will not be forced to set a target. And the soft commitment group, in contrast to the hard commitment group, will have the capability to remove a target after it has been set but before it has been achieved, and can thus cancel the liquidity restriction at any time.
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After
Study participants will be told about two forms of accounts: accounts with a hard, fixed, and mandatory withdrawal restriction feature (henceforth referred to as “hard commitment”), and accounts with a soft, flexible, and optional withdrawal restriction feature (henceforth referred to as “soft commitment”). We will randomize which account they are offered, and we will cross-randomize incentive payments and a spousal information treatment. After account activation we may also randomly switch some of the people in hard commitment accounts to soft commitment accounts.
Account offer and take-up: After study participants declare their preferred account (hard or soft commitment), we will randomize which account they are offered, with the randomization weighted by their declared preference. Then they will be offered the account to which they have been randomized and asked whether they wish to take-up this account. For half of the sample, this will be done in the presence of their spouse, and for the other half this will be done privately, such that their spouse cannot hear what account is offered nor whether they chose to take up the account. For those who wish to take-up the account, a team will be in place to immediately assist them with completing all steps associated with account opening and set-up.
Target-setting: The hard commitment group will be required to put in place a target during account opening. The target can either be an amount, or a date. When a target is in place, an account holder is unable to withdraw funds from the m-savings account until the target is achieved. The soft commitment group will be offered the opportunity to put a target in place during account opening but will not be forced to set a target. And the soft commitment group, in contrast to the hard commitment group, will have the capability to remove a target after it has been set but before it has been achieved, and can thus cancel the liquidity restriction at any time.
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