IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cbi/ecolet/9-el-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Interrupting inertia: evidence from a mortgage refinancing field trial

Author

Listed:
  • Byrne, Shane

    (Central Bank of Ireland)

  • Devine, Kenneth

    (Central Bank of Ireland)

  • McCarthy, Yvonne

    (Central Bank of Ireland)

Abstract

A widespread tendency for mortgage holders to forego opportunities to reduce their repayment burden through refinancing has been well documented. This puzzle has persisted in spite of considerable regulatory and public attention to the topic. In this Letter, we conduct a randomised controlled trial on a sample of circa 12,000 mortgage holders to test how targeted enhancements to an existing disclosure can prompt greater take-up of advantageous refinancing opportunities. The results show the best performing enhancement delivered a 76 per cent increase in the number of refinances completed, when compared against the pre-existing standard disclosure. Refinancers benefit materially, saving on average €1,209 just within the first 12 months after action. We observe that reminders substantially drive the increased uptake, and that the incorporation of personalised euro savings estimates as part of the menu of refinancing options presented to consumers can also help them to more easily weigh-up their opportunities and make the best informed choices . These results demonstrate the value of integrating behavioural economics into consumer protection policymaking.

Suggested Citation

  • Byrne, Shane & Devine, Kenneth & McCarthy, Yvonne, 2022. "Interrupting inertia: evidence from a mortgage refinancing field trial," Economic Letters 9/EL/22, Central Bank of Ireland.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbi:ecolet:9/el/22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.centralbank.ie/docs/default-source/publications/economic-letters/interrupting-inertia-evidence-from-a-mortgage-refinancing-field-trial.pdf?sfvrsn=35889b1d_6
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hastings, Justine & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2020. "How financial literacy and impatience shape retirement wealth and investment behaviors," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-20, January.
    2. Byrne, Shane & Devine, Kenneth & McCarthy, Yvonne, 2022. "Behavioural Economics and Public Policy-Making," Quarterly Bulletin Articles, Central Bank of Ireland, pages 85-103, January.
    3. Giordana, Gastón & Ziegelmeyer, Michael, 2020. "Stress testing household balance sheets in Luxembourg," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 115-138.
    4. Devine, Kenneth, 2022. "Refinancing Inertia in the Irish Mortgage Market," Research Technical Papers 5/RT/22, Central Bank of Ireland.
    5. Steffen Andersen & John Y. Campbell & Kasper Meisner Nielsen & Tarun Ramadorai, 2020. "Sources of Inaction in Household Finance: Evidence from the Danish Mortgage Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 3184-3230, October.
    6. Byrne, Shane & Devine, Kenneth & McCarthy, Yvonne, 2020. "Room to improve: a review of switching activity in the Irish mortgage market," Economic Letters 12/EL/20, Central Bank of Ireland.
    7. Lunn, Pete & McGowan, Féidhlim & Howard, Noel, 2018. "Do some financial product features negatively affect consumer decisions? a review of evidence," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS78.
    8. Bajo, Emanuele & Barbi, Massimiliano, 2018. "Financial illiteracy and mortgage refinancing decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 279-296.
    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. Brunetti, M. & Ciciretti, R. & Djordjevic, Lj., 2020. "Till mortgage do us part: Mortgage switching costs and household's bank switching," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. McGowan, Féidhlim & Papadopoulos, Alexandros & Lunn, Pete, 2023. "Who switches and why? A diagnostic survey of retail financial services in Ireland," Papers WP748, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    3. Olafsson, Arna & Gathergood, John, 2020. "The Co-holding Puzzle: New Evidence from Transaction-Level Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 14799, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Papadopoulos, Alexandros & McGowan, Féidhlim & McGinnity, Frances & Timmons, Shane & Lunn, Pete, 2023. "Switching activity in retail financial markets in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS161.
    5. Scott, David & Pratap Singh, Anuj, 2024. "Mortgage switching through the turning of the interest rate cycle," Financial Stability Notes 2/FS/24, Central Bank of Ireland.
    6. Beere, Brendan & Byrne, Shane & Kelly, Jane & Pratap Singh, Anuj, 2022. "The Great Account Migration: Lessons from Behavioural Economics," Financial Stability Notes 13/FS/22, Central Bank of Ireland.
    7. Devine, Kenneth, 2022. "Refinancing Inertia in the Irish Mortgage Market," Research Technical Papers 5/RT/22, Central Bank of Ireland.
    8. John Y. Campbell, 2016. "Restoring Rational Choice: The Challenge of Consumer Financial Regulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 1-30, May.
    9. Noviarini, Jelita & Coleman, Andrew & Roberts, Helen & Whiting, Rosalind H., 2023. "Financial literacy and retirees' resource allocation decisions in New Zealand," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Kristopher Gerardi & Lauren Lambie-Hanson & Paul S. Willen, 2022. "Lessons Learned from Mortgage Borrower Policies and Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Policy Hub, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 2022(9), July.
    11. Carlos Santiago Guzmán Gutiérrez, 2019. "Sistema Pensional Colombiano: implicaciones de la educación financiera sobre las decisiones de traslado de los individuos," Documentos CEDE 17677, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    12. Fey, Jan-Christian & Lerbs, Oliver & Schmidt, Carolin & Weber, Martin, 2020. "Risk attitude and capital market participation: Is there a gender investment gap in Germany?," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-080, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Francesco D’Acunto & Daniel Hoang & Michael Weber, 2022. "Managing Households’ Expectations with Unconventional Policies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(4), pages 1597-1642.
    14. Garber, Gabriel & Mian, Atif & Ponticelli, Jacopo & Sufi, Amir, 2024. "Consumption smoothing or consumption binging? The effects of government-led consumer credit expansion in Brazil," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    15. Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2011. "Financial literacy around the world: an overview," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 497-508, October.
    16. Asger Lau Andersen & Niels Johannesen & Mia Jørgensen & José-Luis Peydró, 2020. "Monetary policy and inequality," Economics Working Papers 1761, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Mar 2021.
    17. Gergely Hajdu & Balázs Krusper, 2023. "Choice-induced Sticky Learning," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp349, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    18. Keys, Benjamin J. & Pope, Devin G. & Pope, Jaren C., 2016. "Failure to refinance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 482-499.
    19. Katya Kartashova & Xiaoqing Zhou, 2020. "How Do Mortgage Rate Resets Affect Consumer Spending and Debt Repayment? Evidence from Canadian Consumers," Staff Working Papers 20-18, Bank of Canada.
    20. Luigi Guiso & Eliana Viviano, 2015. "How Much Can Financial Literacy Help?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(4), pages 1347-1382.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cbi:ecolet:9/el/22. 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: Fiona Farrelly (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbigvie.html .

    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.