Evaluating Deliberative Competence: A Simple Method with an Application to Financial Choice

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ambuehl, Sandro; Bernheim, B. Douglas; Lusardi, Annamaria
• 署名单位: University of Zurich; George Washington University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20210290
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 3584-3626
• 关键词: exponential-growth bias; EDUCATION EVIDENCE; risk-aversion; preference; literacy; diversification; strategies; DESIGN; IMPACT; POLICY

摘要

We examine methods for evaluating interventions designed to improve decision-making quality when people misunderstand the consequences of their choices. In an experiment involving financial education, conventional outcome metrics ( financial literacy and directional behavioral responses) imply that two interventions are equally beneficial even though only one reduces the average severity of errors. We trace these failures to violations of the assumptions embedded in the conventional metrics. We propose a simple, intui-tive, and broadly applicable outcome metric that properly differen-tiates between the interventions, and is robustly interpretable as a measure of welfare loss from misunderstanding consequences even when additional biases distort choices. (JEL D83, D91, G51, G53)