Peer effects in financial decision-making

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lieber, Ethan M. J.; Skimmyhorn, William
• 署名单位: University of Notre Dame; United States Military Academy; United States Department of Defense; United States Army
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.05.001
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 37-59
• 关键词: Social effects; Financial decision-making; Retirement savings; Charitable giving

摘要

Peer effects might play an important role in complex financial decisions because many consumers lack experience with them and the costs of thinking through such decisions can be very high. We study peer effects in retirement savings, life insurance purchase, and two charitable giving programs in a military setting with plausibly exogenous assignment of individuals to social groups. Peers, defined broadly as social groups which may include members of different ranks, appear to play an important role in the charitable giving programs, but not in the other outcomes. We assess a number of potential reasons for the disparate findings and provide suggestive evidence that the observability of individuals' choices is key. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.