Publications

August 3, 2012
Article

The High Cost of Pension Savings

By: Robert C. Pozen

29 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

Keywords: by Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan & Wesley Yin; Financial Services

Research Summary

Can Gambling Increase Savings? Empirical Evidence on Prize-linked Savings Accounts

This paper studies whether prize-linked savings (PLS) accounts, which offer random, lottery-like payouts to account holders in lieu of risk-free interest, can aid individuals in increasing savings levels by adding the chance to “win big.” Using micro-level data from... View Details

Keywords: Lottery; Banking; Saving; Commercial Banking; Africa

May 14, 2024
Article

One Way to Help Employees Build Emergency Savings

By: Timothy Flacke and Peter Tufano

Intentional cooperation between two organizations — BlackRock, a major asset management firm, and national non-profit, Commonwealth — created the conditions for the nation’s largest payroll processor, multiple U.S. employers, retirement record keepers, and others to... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Personal Finance; Income; Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Partners and Partnerships

June 2007 (Revised January 2008)
Background Note

The U.S. Retirement Savings Market and the Pension Protection Act of 2006

By: Luis M. Viceira and Helen Tung

Provides an overview of the evolution of the private retirement savings market in the U.S. since 1990; the management and administration of defined-contribution (DC) plans; the existing evidence about the investment and savings decisions of participants in DC plans;... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Personal Finance; Saving; Government Legislation; Retirement; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; United States

Educators

Article

The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Katherine L. Milkman

Using a field experiment in a 401(k) plan, we measure the effect of disseminating information about peer behavior on savings. Low-saving employees received simplified plan enrollment or contribution increase forms. A randomized subset of forms stated the fraction of... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Decision Choices and Conditions; Retirement

April 2021
Case

Etsy: Crafting a Turnaround to Save the Business and Its Soul

By: Ranjay Gulati, Luciana Silvestri and Monte Burke

Etsy, the online seller of handmade goods, was founded in 2005 on an almost utopian ideal—a responsible, caring company that offered individual crafters a place to sell their wares, a wholesome alternative to companies that sold mass-manufactured products. The company... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Organizational Culture; Financial Condition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Transformation; Leadership

Educators

2018
Chapter

Will Urbanization Save the Chinese Economy or Destroy it?

By: Meg Rithmire

The Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping has announced its intentions to transition the economy from one driven by investment and exports to one driven by domestic demand. The main strategy to achieve this transformation involves massive state-led urbanization. This... View Details

Keywords: China; Urbanization; Economic Development; Urban Development; Economic Growth; China

24 Sep 2015
Cold Call Podcast

Dangerous Mines: Saving Lives through Leadership

March 1991 (Revised May 1991)
Case

Save the Children/U.S. in Viet Nam

2023
Working Paper

Saving and Consumption Responses to Student Loan Forbearance

By: Justin Katz

How do households adjust savings and consumption in response to liquidity from debt relief? I study this question using policy variation induced by federal student loan forbearance in the 2020 CARES Act and an individual-level panel of daily financial transactions for... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Consumer Behavior; Borrowing and Debt; Interest Rates; Financial Liquidity; Personal Finance; Government Legislation

SSRN

13 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Can AI Save Physicians from Burnout?

revenue and physician compensation. Unfortunately, attempting to save time with an AI tool in taking visit notes may actually translate into increased patient loads. If volume-driven financial incentives remain unchanged, there may be... View Details

Keywords: by Susanna Gallani, Lidia Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt; Health

June 30, 2023
Article

How to Save a Stumbling Startup

By: Ranjay Gulati

Keywords: Business Startups; Small Business; Outcome or Result; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Exit or Shutdown

11 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Business of Saving the Planet

"The fact that the benefits of addressing the problem of climate change almost certainly outweigh the costs ... does not make concerted global action to address the problem easy." —Climate Change in 2018: Implications for Business If there is one positive... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Green Technology

16 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Can Applied Economics Save Homeless Puppies?

recall—perhaps naively, but excitedly—thinking, I know how to save the dogs! We just need to come up with a better matching algorithm,” says Exley, who, while working on her doctorate in economics, spent her free time volunteering at the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

Article

Saving Is Important, but So Is Spending

By: Amar Bhidé

Register to Read

December 2016 (Revised November 2017)
Teaching Plan

Olivia Lum: Wanting to Save the World

By: Geoffrey Jones and Ai Hisano

Teaching Plan for HBS No. 316-178. View Details

October 2020
Article

Overcoming Resource Scarcity: Consumers' Response to Gifts Intending to Save Time and Money

By: Alice Lee-Yoon, Grant Donnelly and A.V. Whillans

Consumers feel increasingly pressed for time and money. Gifts have the potential to reduce scarcity in recipients’ lives, yet little is known about how recipients perceive gifts given with the intention of saving them time or money. Across five studies (N =... View Details

Keywords: Scarcity; Status; Time; Gift Giving; Status and Position; Money; Attitudes; Emotions

Article

Present Bias Causes and Then Dissipates Auto-enrollment Savings Effects

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Peter Maxted

Present bias causes procrastination, which leads households to stick with auto-enrollment defaults. However, present bias also engenders overconsumption. Separation from each employer generates a rollover of 401(k) balances to an individual retirement account (IRA)... View Details

Keywords: Present Bias; Procrastination; Personal Finance; Decision Making; Social Psychology; Retirement