Save more tomorrow, today: experimental evidence on the role of precommitment, urgency, and personalization

Charlton Eli and William Skimmyhorn

Review of Finance, 2025, vol. 29, issue 5, 1587-1618

Abstract: We study the causal effects of precommitment framing, motivational deadlines, and semi-personalized information on military servicemembers’ retirement savings using a randomized field experiment. Low-cost emails highlighting a motivational deadline or semi-personalized salary information increased participation by about 1 percentage point (control mean is 1.25 percent) and contribution rates by about 0.05 percentage points (control mean is 3.92 percent) among previous non-participants. These programs demonstrate a cost-effective and scalable tool by which managers can increase employees’ retirement savings.

Keywords: Retirement savings; Precommitment; Nudge; Loss aversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 D15 G51 J32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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