Research

Journal articles

Published papers are slightly different than the drafts posted here because of editorial changes.

  1. Social Identity and Preferences
    American Economic Review (with Daniel J. Benjamin and A. Joshua Strickland), forthcoming.
    Web appendix is here.

  2. Why Does the Law of One Price Fail? An Experiment on Index Mutual Funds
    Review of Financial Studies (with David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian), forthcoming.
    Older draft (without Harvard staff sample) summarized in July 2006 NBER Digest.
    Supplement: Prospectuses used in experiments.

  3. Reinforcement Learning and Savings Behavior
    Journal of Finance (with David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Andrew Metrick), 2009.

  4. Mental Accounting in Portfolio Choice: Evidence from a Flypaper Effect
    American Economic Review (with David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian), 2009.

  5. Optimal Defaults and Active Decisions
    Quarterly Journal of Economics (with Gabriel D. Carroll, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Andrew Metrick), 2009.
    Summarized in Summer 2005 NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health.
    Web appendix with proofs is here.
    Previous draft with more general model is here    .

  6. How Are Preferences Revealed?
    Journal of Public Economics (with John Beshears, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian), 2008.

  7. Early Decisions: A Regulatory Framework
    Swedish Economic Policy Review (with John Beshears, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian), 2005.

  8. Are Empowerment and Education Enough? Underdiversification in 401(k) Plans
    Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (with David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian), 2005.

  9. Plan Design and 401(k) Savings Outcomes
    National Tax Journal (with David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian), 2004.
    Summarized in October 2004 NBER Digest.

  10. Optimal Defaults
    American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings (with David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Andrew Metrick), 2003.
    A longer version of this paper is "Passive Decisions and Potent Defaults."

  11. How Does the Internet Affect Trading? Evidence from Investor Behavior in 401(k) Plans
    Journal of Financial Economics (with David Laibson and Andrew Metrick), 2002.
    Summarized in February 2001 NBER Digest.

  12. The Value Line Enigma: The Sum of Known Parts?
    Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 2000.

Book chapters

Published chapters are slightly different than the drafts posted here because of editorial changes.

  1. How Does Simplified Disclosure Affect Individuals' Mutual Fund Choices?
    Explorations in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise, editor, forthcoming (with John Beshears, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian).
    Summarized in July 2009 NBER Digest.

  2. The Impact of Employer Matching on Savings Plan Participation under Automatic Enrollment
    Research Findings in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise, editor, forthcoming (with John Beshears, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian).

  3. Public Policy and Saving for Retirement: The 'Autosave' Features of the Pension Protection Act of 2006
    Better Living Through Economics: How Economic Research Improves Our Lives, John J. Siegfried, editor, 2010 (with John Beshears, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Brian Weller).

  4. Reducing the Complexity Costs of 401(k) Participation Through Quick Enrollment
    Developments in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise, editor, 2009 (with David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian).

  5. The Importance of Default Options for Retirement Saving Outcomes: Evidence from the United States
    Lessons from Pension Reform in the Americas, Stephen J. Kay and Tapen Sinha, editors, 2008 (with John Beshears, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian).

  6. Saving for Retirement on the Path of Least Resistance
    Behavioral Public Finance: Toward a New Agenda, Ed McCaffrey and Joel Slemrod, editors, 2006 (with David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Andrew Metrick).

  7. Passive Decisions and Potent Defaults
    Analyses in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise, editor, 2005 (with David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Andrew Metrick).

  8. Employees' Investment Decisions About Company Stock
    Pension Design and Structure: New Lessons from Behavioral Finance, Olivia S. Mitchell and Stephen P. Utkus, editors, 2004 (with David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Andrew Metrick).

  9. For Better or For Worse: Default Effects and 401(k) Savings Behavior [Click here for nicely typeset text]
    Perspectives in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise, editor, 2004 (with David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Andrew Metrick).
    Summarized in April 2002 NBER Digest.

  10. Defined Contribution Pensions: Plan Rules, Participant Decisions, and the Path of Least Resistance [Click here for nicely typeset file]
    Tax Policy and the Economy, James Poterba, editor, 2002 (with David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Andrew Metrick).
    Summarized in April 2002 NBER Digest.

Working papers

  1. Does Ownership Breadth Predict Stock Returns? New Evidence from Market-Wide Holdings Data
    (with Li Jin and Hongjun Yan), 2009.

  2. Religious Identity and Economic Behavior
    (with Daniel J. Benjamin and Geoffrey Fisher), 2009.

  3. $100 Bills on the Sidewalk: Suboptimal Investment in 401(k) Plans
    Review of Economics and Statistics, revised and resubmitted (with David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian), 2009.

  4. Can Psychological Aggregation Manipulations Affect Portfolio Risk-Taking? Evidence from a Framed Field Experiment
    (with John Beshears, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian), 2009.

  5. The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions
    (with John Beshears, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Katherine L. Milkman), 2009.

  6. A Primer on 401(k) Loans
    (with John Beshears, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian), 2008.

  7. Extrapolative Expectations and the Equity Premium
    2006.

  8. Simplification and Saving
    (with John Beshears, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian), 2006.
    Summarized in May 2007 NBER Digest.

Slide presentations

  1. Defined Contribution Plans for Passive Investors
    2004 (with David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian)
    Summarizes our recommendations for designing defined contribution retirement savings plans such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s.

  2. Household Finance and Libertarian Paternalism
    2009
    Slides from a lecture to Ph.D. students at the 2009 Yale Summer School in Behavioral Finance.