TY  - JOUR
AU  - Karlan,Dean
AU  - McConnell,Margaret
AU  - Mullainathan,Sendhil
AU  - Zinman,Jonathan
TI  - Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16205
PY  - 2010
Y2  - July 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16205
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16205.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Dean Karlan
Department of Economics
Yale University
P.O. Box 208269
New Haven, CT 06520-8629
Tel: 203/432-4479
Fax: 203/432-5591
E-Mail: dean.karlan@yale.edu

Margaret McConnell
Harvard University
9 Bow St
Cambridge, MA 02138
E-Mail: mmcconnell@gmail.com

Sendhil Mullainathan
Department of Economics
Littauer M-18
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/496-2720
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: mullain@fas.harvard.edu

Jonathan Zinman
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
314 Rockefeller Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Tel: 603/646-0075
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: jzinman@dartmouth.edu
AB  - We develop and test a simple model of limited attention in intertemporal choice. The model posits that individuals fully attend to consumption in all periods but fail to attend to some future lumpy expenditure opportunities. This asymmetry generates some predictions that overlap with models of present-bias. Our model also generates the unique predictions that reminders may increase saving, and that reminders will be more effective when they increase the salience of a specific expenditure. We find support for these predictions in three field experiments that randomly assign reminders to new savings account holders.
ER  -