IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v44y2022ics1544612321001240.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pension scheme trustees as surrogate decision makers

Author

Listed:
  • Weiss-Cohen, Leonardo
  • Ayton, Peter
  • Clacher, Iain
  • Thoma, Volker

Abstract

Pension trustees make surrogate decisions on behalf of scheme members. However, prior research has not explored how this might affect pension adequacy. Our results show that when setting targets for pension replacement income, trustees project their own preferences instead of reflecting member preferences. Furthermore, projection was more pronounced for trustees with lower financial literacy. Trustees choose significantly higher pension replacement rates for members than members choose for themselves. Trustees also choose replacement rates higher than current benchmarks. The economic consequences are potentially considerable, due to high levels of pension contributions and incompatible risk-taking. A better understanding of the dynamics of decisions made by trustees is needed to ensure better member outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Weiss-Cohen, Leonardo & Ayton, Peter & Clacher, Iain & Thoma, Volker, 2022. "Pension scheme trustees as surrogate decision makers," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:44:y:2022:i:c:s1544612321001240
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2021.102043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612321001240
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102043?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. Ola Andersson & Håkan J. Holm & Jean-Robert Tyran & Erik Wengström, 2016. "Deciding for Others Reduces Loss Aversion," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(1), pages 29-36, January.
    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. Fenja V Ziegler & Richard J Tunney, 2012. "Decisions for Others Become Less Impulsive the Further Away They Are on the Family Tree," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(11), pages 1-5, November.
    5. Shlomo Benartzi & Richard Thaler, 2007. "Heuristics and Biases in Retirement Savings Behavior," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 81-104, Summer.
    6. Evan Polman & Daniel A Effron & Meredith R Thomas & Vicki MorwitzEditor & Pankaj AggarwalAssociate Editor, 2018. "Other People’s Money: Money’s Perceived Purchasing Power Is Smaller for Others Than for the Self," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 45(1), pages 109-125.
    7. David Faro & Yuval Rottenstreich, 2006. "Affect, Empathy, and Regressive Mispredictions of Others' Preferences Under Risk," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 529-541, April.
    8. 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.
    9. West, Patricia M, 1996. "Predicting Preferences: An Examination of Agent Learning," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 23(1), pages 68-80, June.
    10. Clark, Gordon L. & Caerlewy-Smith, Emiko & Marshall, John C., 2007. "The consistency of UK pension fund trustee decision-making," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 67-86, March.
    11. Weiss-Cohen, Leonardo & Ayton, Peter & Clacher, Iain, 2020. "Extraneous menu-effects influence financial decisions made by pension trustees," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    12. Clark, Gordon L., 2004. "Pension fund governance: expertise and organizational form," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 233-253, July.
    13. Andrew A. Samwick & Jonathan Skinner, 2004. "How Will 401(k) Pension Plans Affect Retirement Income?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 329-343, March.
    14. Polman, Evan, 2012. "Self–other decision making and loss aversion," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 141-150.
    15. Polman, Evan & Wu, Kaiyang, 2020. "Decision making for others involving risk: A review and meta-analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    16. Liu, Yi & Polman, Evan & Liu, Yongfang & Jiao, Jiangli, 2018. "Choosing for others and its relation to information search," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 65-75.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Polman, Evan & Wu, Kaiyang, 2020. "Decision making for others involving risk: A review and meta-analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. J. C. Hauff & A. Carlander & T. Gärling & G. Nicolini, 2020. "Retirement Financial Behaviour: How Important Is Being Financially Literate?," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 543-564, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Choi, James J. & Haisley, Emily & Kurkoski, Jennifer & Massey, Cade, 2017. "Small cues change savings choices," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 378-395.
    5. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    6. Nicolas Aubert & Thomas Rapp, 2010. "Employee's investment behaviors in a company based savings plan," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 31(1), pages 5-32.
    7. Le Blanc, Julia & Scholl, Almuth, 2017. "Optimal Savings For Retirement: The Role Of Individual Accounts," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(6), pages 1361-1388, September.
    8. Timmons, Shane & Robertson, Deirdre & Lunn, Pete, 2022. "Combining nudges and boosts to increase precautionary saving: A large-scale field experiment," Papers WP722, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    9. Johannes Hagen & Daniel Hallberg & Gabriella Sjögren, 2022. "A Nudge to Quit? The Effect of a Change in Pension Information on Annuitisation, Labour Supply and Retirement Choices Among Older Workers," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(643), pages 1060-1094.
    10. Beshears, John & Choi, James J. & Laibson, David & Madrian, Brigitte C., 2011. "Behavioral economics perspectives on public sector pension plans," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 315-336, April.
    11. Jonathan Cribb & Carl Emmerson, 2016. "What happens when employers are obliged to nudge? Automatic enrolment and pension saving in the UK," IFS Working Papers W16/19, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    12. Olckers, Matthew, 2021. "On track for retirement?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 76-88.
    13. Goda, Gopi Shah & Levy, Matthew R. & Flaherty Manchester, Colleen & Sojourner, Aaron & Tasoff, Joshua & Xiao, Jiusi, 2023. "Are retirement planning tools substitutes or complements to financial capability?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 561-573.
    14. Annamaria Lusardi & Punam Anand Keller & Adam M. Keller, 2009. "New Ways to Make People Save: A Social Marketing Approach," NBER Working Papers 14715, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Yanwen Wang & Muxin Zhai & John G. Lynch, 2023. "Cashing Out Retirement Savings at Job Separation," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(4), pages 679-703, July.
    16. Goodman, Lucas & Mukherjee, Anita & Ramnath, Shanthi, 2023. "Set it and forget it? Financing retirement in an age of defaults," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(1), pages 47-68.
    17. Liu, Yi & Polman, Evan & Liu, Yongfang & Jiao, Jiangli, 2018. "Choosing for others and its relation to information search," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 65-75.
    18. Reyers, Michelle & van Schalkwyk, Cornelis Hendrik & Gouws, Daniël Gerhardus, 2015. "Rational and behavioural predictors of pre-retirement cash-outs," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 23-33.
    19. Tam, Leona & Dholakia, Utpal M., 2011. "Delay and duration effects of time frames on personal savings estimates and behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 142-152, March.
    20. Mugerman, Yevgeny & Sade, Orly & Shayo, Moses, 2014. "Long term savings decisions: Financial reform, peer effects and ethnicity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 235-253.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Behavioral finance; Decision-making; Pensions; Trustees; Surrogate decisions; Financial literacy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior

    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:finlet:v:44:y:2022:i:c:s1544612321001240. 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/frl .

    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.