The Roybal Center for Behavior Change in Health and Savings

The NBER Roybal Center for Behavior Change in Health and Savings is one of thirteen centers authorized by Congress in 1993 and named for former House Select Committee on Aging Chair Edward R. Roybal. Since its founding, the Center has worked to translate basic research findings in the economics of aging into practical applications that improve health and economic well-being.

Many of the Center’s projects translate successful retirement saving interventions to the domain of health behavior. Through experimental pilot projects, the Center seeks to develop new health interventions that improve health outcomes and reduce costs. The experimental interventions supported by the Center study a wide range of scalable, cost-effective channels that influence behavior including defaults, automaticity, peer information, financial incentives, deadlines, pre-commitment strategies, simplified choice sets, education, communication, and advice.