The Ostrich in Us: Selective Attention to Financial Accounts, Income, Spending, and Liquidity

Arna Olafsson and Michaela Pagel

No 23945, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We analyze attention to personal financial accounts using panel data that includes logins, spending, income, balances, and credit limits. We find that income arrivals cause individuals to log in and that attention is positively correlated with cash holdings and liquidity, is negatively correlated with consumer debt holdings, and increases when bank account balances change from negative to positive. We discuss how our findings relate to theories of rational and selective inattention and conclude that ostrich effects in a personal finance context, i.e., the fear of paying attention to bank account balances, is a more widespread phenomenon than previously thought.

JEL-codes: D14 D90 G41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-upt
Note: AP
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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Working Paper: The Ostrich in Us: Selective Attention to Financial Accounts, Income, Spending, and Liquidity (2017)
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