IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v129y2018i1p24-45.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When saving is gambling

Author

Listed:
  • Cookson, J. Anthony

Abstract

Prize-linked savings (PLS) accounts, which allocate interest using lottery payments rather than fixed interest, encourage savings by appealing to households’ gambling preferences. I introduce new data on casino cash withdrawals to measure gambling, and examine how individual gambling expenditures respond to the introduction of PLS in Nebraska using a difference-in-differences design. After PLS is introduced, individuals who live in counties that offer PLS reduce gambling by at least 3% more than unaffected individuals. The substitution effect is stronger in low-frills gambling environments, which most resemble PLS, indicating that these accounts fulfill the desire to gamble.

Suggested Citation

  • Cookson, J. Anthony, 2018. "When saving is gambling," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 24-45.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:129:y:2018:i:1:p:24-45
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.04.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X18300953
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.04.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker & Kevin M. Murphy, 1993. "A Simple Theory of Advertising as a Good or Bad," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(4), pages 941-964.
    2. Richard H. Thaler & Shlomo Benartzi, 2004. "Save More Tomorrow (TM): Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee Saving," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(S1), pages 164-187, February.
    3. Daniel Fernandes & John G. Lynch & Richard G. Netemeyer, 2014. "Financial Literacy, Financial Education, and Downstream Financial Behaviors," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1861-1883, August.
    4. Annamaria Lusardi & Daniel Schneider & Peter Tufano, 2011. "Financially Fragile Households: Evidence and Implications," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(1 (Spring), pages 83-150.
    5. Jere R. Behrman & Olivia S. Mitchell & Cindy K. Soo & David Bravo, 2012. "How Financial Literacy Affects Household Wealth Accumulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 300-304, May.
    6. Nicholas Barberis & Ming Huang, 2008. "Stocks as Lotteries: The Implications of Probability Weighting for Security Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 2066-2100, December.
    7. John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian & Katherine L. Milkman, 2015. "The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(3), pages 1161-1201, June.
    8. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Søren Leth-Petersen & Torben Heien Nielsen & Tore Olsen, 2014. "Active vs. Passive Decisions and Crowd-Out in Retirement Savings Accounts: Evidence from Denmark," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1141-1219.
    9. James S. Doran & Danling Jiang & David R. Peterson, 2011. "Gambling Preference and the New Year Effect of Assets with Lottery Features," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 16(3), pages 685-731.
    10. Kearney, Melissa Schettini, 2005. "State lotteries and consumer behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(11-12), pages 2269-2299, December.
    11. Kuhnen, Camelia M. & Miu, Andrei C., 2017. "Socioeconomic status and learning from financial information," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 349-372.
    12. Brigitte C. Madrian & Dennis F. Shea, 2001. "The Power of Suggestion: Inertia in 401(k) Participation and Savings Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(4), pages 1149-1187.
    13. James J. Choi, 2015. "Contributions to Defined Contribution Pension Plans," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 161-178, December.
    14. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    15. Geng Li, 2012. "Gamblers as personal finance activists," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2012-18, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    16. Bruce D. Meyer & Wallace K. C. Mok & James X. Sullivan, 2009. "The Under-Reporting of Transfers in Household Surveys: Its Nature and Consequences," NBER Working Papers 15181, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Brian H. Boyer & Keith Vorkink, 2014. "Stock Options as Lotteries," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1485-1527, August.
    18. Filiz-Ozbay, Emel & Guryan, Jonathan & Hyndman, Kyle & Kearney, Melissa & Ozbay, Erkut Y., 2015. "Do lottery payments induce savings behavior? Evidence from the lab," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 1-24.
    19. Richard N. Rosett, 1965. "Gambling and Rationality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73, pages 595-595.
    20. Meta Brown & John Grigsby & Wilbert van der Klaauw & Jaya Wen & Basit Zafar, 2016. "Financial Education and the Debt Behavior of the Young," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(9), pages 2490-2522.
    21. Nicholas Barberis, 2012. "A Model of Casino Gambling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(1), pages 35-51, January.
    22. Daniel Dorn & Paul Sengmueller, 2009. "Trading as Entertainment?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(4), pages 591-603, April.
    23. Alok Kumar, 2009. "Who Gambles in the Stock Market?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1889-1933, August.
    24. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    25. Savor, Pavel & Wilson, Mungo, 2014. "Asset pricing: A tale of two days," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 171-201.
    26. Liang Peng & Thomas G. Thibodeau, 2017. "Idiosyncratic Risk of House Prices: Evidence from 26 Million Home Sales," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(2), pages 340-375, April.
    27. Brown, David C. & Cederburg, Scott & O’Doherty, Michael S., 2017. "Tax uncertainty and retirement savings diversification," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 689-712.
    28. Shawn Cole & Anna Paulson & Gauri Kartini Shastry, 2014. "Smart Money? The Effect of Education on Financial Outcomes," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(7), pages 2022-2051.
    29. Nicholas Barberis & Ming Huang & Richard H. Thaler, 2006. "Individual Preferences, Monetary Gambles, and Stock Market Participation: A Case for Narrow Framing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1069-1090, September.
    30. Jörg L. Spenkuch & David Toniatti, 2016. "Political Advertising and Election Outcomes," CESifo Working Paper Series 5780, CESifo.
    31. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2008. "All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 785-818, April.
    32. Cookson, J. Anthony, 2017. "Leverage and strategic preemption: Lessons from entry plans and incumbent investments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 292-312.
    33. Peter Tufano, 2008. "Saving whilst Gambling: An Empirical Analysis of UK Premium Bonds," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 321-326, May.
    34. Gary S. Becker & Kevin M. Murphy & Ivan Werning, 2005. "The Equilibrium Distribution of Income and the Market for Status," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(2), pages 282-310, April.
    35. Mark Grinblatt & Matti Keloharju, 2009. "Sensation Seeking, Overconfidence, and Trading Activity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 549-578, April.
    36. Li, Xindan & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar & Yang, Xuewei, 2018. "Can financial innovation succeed by catering to behavioral preferences? Evidence from a callable options market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 38-65.
    37. Del Viva, Luca & Kasanen, Eero & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2017. "Real Options, Idiosyncratic Skewness, and Diversification," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 215-241, February.
    38. Milton Friedman & L. J. Savage, 1948. "The Utility Analysis of Choices Involving Risk," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56, pages 279-279.
    39. Brad M. Barber & Yi-Tsung Lee & Yu-Jane Liu & Terrance Odean, 2009. "Just How Much Do Individual Investors Lose by Trading?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 609-632, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jindapon, Paan & Sujarittanonta, Pacharasut & Viriyavipart, Ajalavat, 2022. "Prize-linked savings games: Theory and experiment," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 202-229.
    2. Brown, James R. & Cookson, J. Anthony & Heimer, Rawley Z., 2019. "Growing up without finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(3), pages 591-616.
    3. Justin Cox & Adam Schwartz & Robert Ness, 2020. "Does what happen in Vegas stay in Vegas? Football gambling and stock market activity," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 44(4), pages 724-748, October.
    4. Shawn Cole & Benjamin Iverson & Peter Tufano, 2022. "Can Gambling Increase Savings? Empirical Evidence on Prize-Linked Savings Accounts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3282-3308, May.
    5. Marco Fabbri & Paolo Nicola Barbieri & Maria Bigoni, 2019. "Ride Your Luck! A Field Experiment on Lottery-Based Incentives for Compliance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(9), pages 4336-4348, September.
    6. Müller, Karsten & Pan, Yuanyuan & Schwarz, Carlo, 2024. "Social Media and Stock Market Participation," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 699, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    7. Hendy, Patrick & Slonim, Robert & Atalay, Kadir, 2021. "Unsticking credit card repayments from the minimum: Advice, anchors and financial incentives," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    8. Chi Liao, 2023. "Risk‐taking begets risk‐taking: Evidence from casino openings and investor portfolios," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(1), pages 143-165, February.
    9. Burke, Jeremy, 2021. "Do prize-linked incentives promote positive financial behavior? Evidence from a debt reduction intervention," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    10. Demir, Tolga & Mohammadi, Ali & Shafi, Kourosh, 2022. "Crowdfunding as gambling: Evidence from repeated natural experiments," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    11. Gallagher, Emily A. & Gopalan, Radhakrishnan & Grinstein-Weiss, Michal & Sabat, Jorge, 2020. "Medicaid and household savings behavior: New evidence from tax refunds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(2), pages 523-546.
    12. Kormanyos, Emily & Hanspal, Tobin & Hackethal, Andreas, 2023. "Do gamblers invest in lottery stocks?," SAFE Working Paper Series 373, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2023.
    13. Christoph Semken & David Rossell, 2022. "Specification analysis for technology use and teenager well‐being: Statistical validity and a Bayesian proposal," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1330-1355, November.
    14. Xindan Li & Avanidhar Subrahmanyam & Xuewei Yang & Wei Jiang, 0. "Winners, Losers, and Regulators in a Derivatives Market Bubble," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(1), pages 313-350.
    15. Demir, Tolga & Mohammad, Ali & Shafi, Kourosh, 2019. "Crowdfunding as Gambling: Evidence from Repeated Natural Experiments," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 481, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    2. Olckers, Matthew, 2021. "On track for retirement?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 76-88.
    3. Liu, Hongqi & Peng, Cameron & Xiong, Wei A. & Xiong, Wei, 2020. "Resolving the excessive trading puzzle: an integrated approach based on surveys and transactions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118870, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Daniel Ladley & Guanqing Liu & James Rockey, 2016. "Margin Trading: Hedonic Returns and Real Losses," Discussion Papers in Economics 16/06, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    5. Chi Liao, 2023. "Risk‐taking begets risk‐taking: Evidence from casino openings and investor portfolios," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(1), pages 143-165, February.
    6. Mitchell, O.S. & Piggott, J., 2016. "Workplace-Linked Pensions for an Aging Demographic," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 865-904, Elsevier.
    7. Filiz-Ozbay, Emel & Guryan, Jonathan & Hyndman, Kyle & Kearney, Melissa & Ozbay, Erkut Y., 2015. "Do lottery payments induce savings behavior? Evidence from the lab," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 1-24.
    8. Ebert, Sebastian & Hilpert, Christian, 2019. "Skewness preference and the popularity of technical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    9. Liu, Hongqi & Peng, Cameron & Wei, Xiong & Wei, Xiong, 2022. "Taming the bias zoo," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 109301, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Hendy, Patrick & Slonim, Robert & Atalay, Kadir, 2021. "Unsticking credit card repayments from the minimum: Advice, anchors and financial incentives," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    11. Liu, Hongqi & Peng, Cameron & Xiong, Wei A. & Xiong, Wei, 2022. "Taming the bias zoo," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 716-741.
    12. Stephan Meyer & Sebastian Schroff & Christof Weinhardt, 2014. "(Un)skilled leveraged trading of retail investors," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 28(2), pages 111-138, May.
    13. Hongqi Liu & Cameron Peng & Wei A. Xiong & Wei Xiong, 2020. "Taming the Bias Zoo," NBER Working Papers 26911, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Jakusch, Sven Thorsten & Meyer, Steffen & Hackethal, Andreas, 2019. "Taming models of prospect theory in the wild? Estimation of Vlcek and Hens (2011)," SAFE Working Paper Series 146, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2019.
    15. Stephen G Dimmock & Roy Kouwenberg & Olivia S Mitchell & Kim Peijnenburg, 2021. "Household Portfolio Underdiversification and Probability Weighting: Evidence from the Field," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(9), pages 4524-4563.
    16. Uhr, Charline & Meyer, Steffen & Hackethal, Andreas, 2021. "Smoking hot portfolios? Trading behavior, investment biases, and self-control failure," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 73-95.
    17. Tim Kaiser & Lukas Menkhoff, 2017. "Does Financial Education Impact Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior, and If So, When?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 611-630.
    18. Dean Karlan & Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan & Jonathan Zinman, 2014. "Savings by and for the Poor: A Research Review and Agenda," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 36-78, March.
    19. Lee, Suin & Pantzalis, Christos & Park, Jung Chul, 2019. "Does local culture trigger speculative investment behavior?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 71-88.
    20. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Prize linked savings; Gambling; Risk aversion; Financial literacy; Credit unions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:129:y:2018:i:1:p:24-45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505576 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.