This talk summarizes the main findings of the cumulative dissertation “Behavioral Aspects of Product Design and Demand in Retirement Savings” by Stefan Schelling.

This thesis contributes to the field of behavioral economics and decision making in the context of retirement savings. Traditional economic theory considers utility maximizing rational decision makers with well-defined and time-consistent preferences, who process all relevant information. In recent years, economics increasingly focuses on explaining discrepancies between predictions of traditional economic theory and actual human decision making. The research papers included in the cumulative thesis contribute to the field by modeling and analyzing various behavioral aspects of decision making in the context of retirement savings. We propose new models to describe actual human decision making in the accumulation phase (investment decision) as well as in the decumulation phase (annuitization decision). The results provide new helpful insights into the role of various behavioral aspects on these fundamental decisions and point out promising directions for future research.

Literature:

Schelling, S. (2019). Behavioral Aspects of Product Design and Demand in Retirement Savings. Dissertation. DOI: 10.18725/OPARU-15724.