Authors:

  • David Laibson

Excerpt

March 31, 2022, Paper: "We study nudges that turn out to have precise null effects in reducing long-run credit card debt. We test nudgesacross two field experiments covering 183,441 UK cardholders. Our first experiment studies nudges addedto monthly credit card statements. Our second experiment studies letters and email nudges (separate frommonthly statements) sent to cardholders who signed up to automatically pay the minimum required payment.In a follow-up survey to our second experiment, we find that 96% of respondents underestimate the time itwould take to fully repay a debt if the cardholder made only the minimum required payment. The nudgesreduce this confusion, but underestimation remains overwhelmingly common."

Non-HKS Harvard Faculty Website - David Laibson