Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving
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.
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Copy CitationDean Karlan, Margaret McConnell, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Jonathan Zinman, "Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving," NBER Working Paper 16205 (2010), https://doi.org/10.3386/w16205.Download Citation
Non-Technical Summaries
- Over the past ten to fifteen years, a substantial body of research has documented the fact that individuals' saving, borrowing, and...
Published Versions
Dean Karlan & Margaret McConnell & Sendhil Mullainathan & Jonathan Zinman, 2016. "Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(12), pages 3393-3411, December. citation courtesy of 
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