Time inconsistency and overdraft use: Evidence from transaction data and behavioral measurement experiments

Andrej Gill, Florian Hett and Johannes Tischer

No 18/2022, Discussion Papers from Deutsche Bundesbank

Abstract: Households regularly fail to make optimal financial decisions. But what are the underlying reasons for this? Using two conceptually distinct measures of time inconsistency based on bank account transaction data and behavioral measurement experiments, we show that the excessive use of bank account overdrafts is linked to time inconsistency. By contrast, there is no correlation between a survey-based measure of financial literacy and overdraft usage. Our results indicate that consumer education and information may not suffice to overcome mistakes in households' financial decision-making. Rather, behaviorally motivated interventions targeting specific biases in decision-making should also be considered as effective policy tools.

Keywords: Household Finance; Paycheck Sensitivity; Fintech; Time Inconsistency; Time Preferences; Experiment; Behavioral Measurement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 D90 G51 G53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-exp and nep-fle
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/260399/1/1805956140.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:bubdps:182022

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Deutsche Bundesbank Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (econstor@zbw-workspace.eu).