行为经济学在养老储蓄领域的助推应用

“行为经济学之父”Richard Thaler因在行为经济学领域的突出贡献而获2017年诺贝尔经济学奖。Thaler利用行为经济学原理提出了“明日多储蓄”项目, 助推美国养老金储蓄率的提高。在初涉养老金储蓄领域时, Thaler提出采取“自动加入”的方式提高员工养老储蓄参与率; 接着提出采取“自动升级”的方式提高员工的储蓄率, 最终形成了“明日多储蓄”项目。“明日多储蓄”项目具有自由家长主义性质, 不仅能提高员工养老储蓄参与率、储蓄率, 还能优化资产投资配置。该项目产生了深远的影响：在应用层面上, 英国、新西兰等国家跟进推出了类似的养老储蓄政策; 在研究层面上, 一批后继研究者受此启发展开了个体养老金储蓄行为背后心理学机制的探索。结合中国养老储蓄三大支柱发展不平衡的现状, 我们提出可利用框架效应、心理账户、默认选项、将损失程数由双程变为单程等行为经济学手段助推中国养老储蓄的发展。国家可以考虑通过制度设计和政策制定助推全社会养老金参与率和缴纳水平的提高。

The nudging role of behavioral economics in retirement savings decisions: Current situation and future prospects

Richard Thaler was awarded the 2017 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his contributions to behavioral economics. Based on bounded rationality, procrastination, loss aversion, and self-control, Thaler proposed the “Save More Tomorrow” plan that nudge employees to save more for their retirement by increasing the amount saved with every salary raised. Starting at the beginning, Thaler suggested that automatic enrollment can be used as the default option for employees to increase 401(k) participation. At the later stage, automatic escalation, which automatically allocates a fraction of the employees’ future pay increase to 401(k) contribution, is proposed to nudge the increase of contribution rates. The SMarT program, which was labeled as libertarian paternalism, can result in not only increased participation and contribution rates, but also the broad diversification of portfolios. The SMarT program profoundly affected policy in England, New Zealand, and other countries in which governments have established policies to make automatic enrollment the default option for employees to participate in retirement savings plan. Researchers have also been inspired to investigate the mechanism of retirement savings behavior. We first analyze the present status given that the three primary sources of retirement income are disproportionate in China. Then, we discuss and suggest nudge methods to incorporate behavioral economic insights, such as default option, framing effect, mental account and manipulating the “two-route loss” to “one-route loss” to promote retirement savings. Improvements to the participation and contribution rates can also be nudged by designing a plan and formulating a policy on retirement savings in China.