My research examines how behavioural biases and limited cognition may lead to adverse economic outcomes and what is the role for markets and public policies in mitigating these effects. Specifically, I focus on financial preparation for retirement, studying individual saving behaviour and the provision of workplace benefits.
I pursue these questions using theoretical models, often supplemented with numerical simulations and data analysis.
Publications
Exploitative Contracting in a Life Cycle Savings Model (2024), The Review of Economics and Statistics, 1-47.
Online appendix Code Manuscript
What are the properties of savings contracts provided by the market to a present-biased saver? What is the quantitative impact of exploitative contracting on wealth accumulation in a calibrated life-cycle model?
Planning and Saving for Retirement (2023), European Economic Review, vol. 160, 104609.
How do planning costs interact with imperfect self-control in a dynamic problem of saving for retirement?
Working papers
What is the impact of workers’ imperfect understanding of pecuniary benefits at the time of job search, and subsequent learning, on multidimensional compensation packages offered in equilibrium?
The Response of Wages to Mandated Benefits: Evidence from Automatic Pension Enrollment -- with Rachel Scarfe and Daniel Schaefer
Do employers reduce their workers' pay when they are required to provide workplace pension benefits?
Multidimensional Cognitive Ability, Intermediate Channels, and Financial Outcomes -- with Ștefania Simion
What pathways can account for the empirical relationship between cognitive ability and financial outcomes?
Selected work in progress
Does Simplifying Information Lead to Better Investment Decisions? -- with Antonia Grohmann
Retired projects