Are People Systematically Inactive Across Financial Decisions? Linking Evidence from Mortgage and Retirement Saving Decisions

Henrik Yde Andersen, Camilla Skovbo Christensen, Claus Kreiner and Leth-Petersen, Søren

No 20610, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Many people forgo substantial economic gains by not responding to financial incentives, even in major decisions such as retirement savings and mortgage refinancing. But do the same people systematically fail to respond across financial contexts? We study this using a quasi-experimental setting that combines policy changes in pension incentives with shifts in mortgage refinancing incentives from interest rate fluctuations. Linking Danish administrative records, we uncover a striking independence between financial decisions: people who are inactive in one context are not systematically inactive in the other. One implication is that the costs of inaction are not concentrated among specific groups.

JEL-codes: G51 H24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09
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