Deadline-Reward Experiment from "Overcoming Frictions in Retirement Savings with Microincentives"

Last registered on August 04, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Deadline-Reward Experiment from "Overcoming Frictions in Retirement Savings with Microincentives"
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019298
Initial registration date
August 03, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
August 04, 2026, 10:10 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Saurabh Bhargava
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Lynn Conell-Price
PI Affiliation
Cornerstone
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-08-03
End date
2026-08-08
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
Many employees contribute too little to their employer-sponsored retirement plans to obtain the full employer match, even when doing so would generate a large and immediate financial return. A broader research project examines whether this behavior reflects informational frictions—such as uncertainty about how much to save or misunderstanding of the employer match—or frictions associated with engaging in and completing the contribution decision. In a field experiment with administrative contribution outcomes, personalized savings guidance and match clarification changed employees’ reported beliefs but did not measurably increase contributions, whereas a small, same-day engagement reward increased actual contributions. Because that field intervention combined a monetary reward with a same-day eligibility window, it does not separately reveal whether the response required such a short deadline. This individually randomized online experiment provides supplementary mechanism evidence by comparing a common recommendation to save more with a hypothetical $20 Amazon gift-card offer for increasing a 401(k) contribution by the end of today or within two weeks. Employed U.S. adults imagine that they earn $50,000, currently contribute 2 percent of salary, and can change their contribution in a few minutes. The experiment tests whether a reward with a longer eligibility window increases intended action during that window and whether shortening the window to the end of today accelerates intended action into the present.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bhargava, Saurabh and Lynn Conell-Price. 2026. "Deadline-Reward Experiment from "Overcoming Frictions in Retirement Savings with Microincentives"." AEA RCT Registry. August 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19298-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Common scenario

All participants are asked to imagine that they are employed by ABC Company, earn $50,000 per year, and currently contribute 2 percent of salary to the ABC Company 401(k). Contributions are described as automatically deducted from pre-tax pay over the year and invested in a diversified retirement fund. Participants are told that they can review and change their contribution at any time through the ABC benefits portal and that logging in and making a change takes only a few minutes.

All participants then receive the same statement: “You receive an email from ABC Company recommending that you save more for retirement by increasing your contribution to the ABC 401(k).”

Randomized conditions

1. Baseline: Participants receive only the common recommendation. The condition does not mention a reward or the absence of a reward.

2. Reward by end of today: Participants additionally read, “To encourage you to take action, ABC is offering you a $20 Amazon gift card if you log in to the benefits portal and increase your contribution by the end of today. The gift card will be emailed after you submit the increase.”

3. Reward within two weeks: Participants additionally read, “To encourage you to take action, ABC is offering you a $20 Amazon gift card if you log in to the benefits portal and increase your contribution within two weeks from now. The gift card will be emailed after you submit the increase.”

The $20 gift card is hypothetical. Participants receive only the participation payment stated in the Prolific study listing.

Outcome question

On the same page as the randomized email, participants are asked, “What action do you think you would take?” Response options appear in the following fixed chronological order:

1. I would increase my contribution today.

2. I would increase my contribution in the near future—sometime between tomorrow and 14 days from now.

3. I would increase my contribution later—sometime between 15 days and six months from now.

4. I would not increase my contribution within the next six months.
Intervention Start Date
2026-08-03
Intervention End Date
2026-08-08

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The study has two co-primary outcomes and corresponding contrasts:

1. Reward effectiveness under a longer window: an indicator equal to 1 if the participant chooses today or tomorrow through day 14, and 0 otherwise. The corresponding contrast is the two-week reward condition minus baseline.

2. Deadline-induced acceleration: an indicator equal to 1 if the participant chooses today, and 0 otherwise. The corresponding contrast is the reward-by-today condition minus the two-week reward condition.

The first contrast tests whether a reward with a meaningfully longer eligibility window increases intended action during that window. The second isolates the incremental effect of shortening the reward eligibility window from two weeks to the end of today, conditional on a fixed $20 reward.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This is an individually randomized, three-arm online vignette experiment. Every participant sees one condition and answers one required behavioral-intention question. The two reward conditions differ only in the eligibility window attached to an otherwise identical hypothetical $20 Amazon gift card.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomized assignment to treatment administered by qualtrics.
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The target analytic sample is 450 eligible completed participants with preregistered exclusions, approximately 150 per condition. Recruitment may occur in batches and may continue until 450 eligible completed participants have been obtained.
Sample size: planned number of observations
450
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
150 / each arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Oberlin College IRB
IRB Approval Date
2026-08-03
IRB Approval Number
#AY26-27-TH-01
Analysis Plan