Article ID: | iaor20165114 |
Volume: | 62 |
Issue: | 12 |
Start Page Number: | 3393 |
End Page Number: | 3411 |
Publication Date: | Dec 2016 |
Journal: | Management Science |
Authors: | Karlan Dean, McConnell Margaret, Mullainathan Sendhil, Zinman Jonathan |
Keywords: | behaviour, marketing, experiment |
We provide evidence from field experiments with three different banks that reminder messages increase commitment attainment for clients who recently opened commitment savings accounts. Messages that mention both savings goals and financial incentives are particularly effective, whereas other content variations such as gain versus loss framing do not have significantly different effects. Nor do we find evidence that receiving additional late reminders has an additive effect. These empirical results do not map neatly into existing models, so we provide a simple model where limited attention to exceptional expenses can generate undersaving that is in turn mitigated by reminders. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2296.