I’m so excited to finally talk to you about my study on behavioral economics and increasing savings rates. In my master’s program, I was required to do my own study and submit it to at least one location for publication. I already had a relationship with the Filene Research Institute, so I decided to reach out to them before choosing the focus of my project.
Their top choices were helping people save money and increase loyalty. A group of researchers from Duke University did an experiment in Kenya to try and find ways to increase savings. After six months, the surprising results were that a using a gold coin to mark off weeks of savings outranked sentimental reminders and matching funds. I loved these findings and wanted to see if this could be replicated if modified for the US.
My white paper is now published, and I finally get to talk about the study and share it with you. I was privileged to have a conversation with Dan Ariely which helped me narrow down my three main concepts for the study which are time discounting, reciprocity, and a physical manifestation of savings. I hope you enjoy the results.
