Testing the Effectiveness of a Future Selves Intervention for Increasing Retirement Saving: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Mexico

One psychological barrier impeding saving behavior is the inability to fully empathize with one’s future self. Future self interventions have improved savings by helping people overcome this obstacle. Despite the promise of such interventions, previous research has focused predominantly on hypothetical contexts and western settings where the target sample has been predominantly undergraduate. Do interventions that encourage people to more concretely consider their future selves during retirement still have a positive effect on behavior in consequential, real-world savings decisions? Using a field experiment in Mexico (N = 7,603), where less than 1% make a voluntary savings contribution annually, we developed a low-cost, easy-to-implement intervention to test whether concrete thinking about one’s future life improves recurring retirement savings signups relative to a status quo, control group. We find that future self decision aids significantly improved the likelihood of signing up for an automatic recurring savings plan by nearly four times compared to the control.

The Life Cycle Hypothesis and Uncertainty: Analyzing Aging Savings Relationship in Tunisia

This research empirically checks the effect of uncertainty on aging-saving link that is indirectly captured by an auxiliary variable: the unemployment. It looks at the nexus population aging and savings by bringing out the unemployment context importance in determination saving behavior notably in a setting of unavailability of unemployment allowance. To better estimate population aging, it considers the old-age dependency ratio besides the total dependency one, which is the usually indicator used. Applying the Structural VAR model, the variance decomposition technique and the response impulse function, on Tunisia during 1970–2019, it puts on show that elderly do not dissave in a context of enduring unemployment and unavailability of unemployment allowance. Unemployment is an important factor able to shaping the saving behavior and to distort the life cycle hypothesis’s prediction. Consequently, the life cycle hypothesis cannot be validated under uncertainty. Hence, aging does not to alter savings systematically. The nature of aging-saving relationship is upon to social and economic context.

Literasi Keuangan dan Pendapatan Usaha dalam Mempengaruhi Perilaku Menabung Pelaku UKM

Penelitian ini berusaha menganalisis pengaruh literasi keuangan dan pendapatan usaha terhadap perilaku menabung pelaku Usaha Kecil Menengah (UKM). Data penelitian melalui kuesioner yang diberikan kepada 282 pelaku UKM di Depok dari berbagai bidang. Regresi ganda digunakan sebagai alat analisis diolah dengan SPSS 23. Temuan penelitian diperolehnya pengaruh literasi keuangan terhadap perilaku menabung pelaku UKM di Depok. Literasi keuangan para pelaku UKM yang makin baik akan meningkatkan perilaku menabung. Temuan lainnya dalam penelitian ini adalah tidak adanya pengaruh pendapatan usaha terhadap perilaku menabung para pelaku UKM. This study analyzed the influence of financial literacy, and business income on the saving behavior of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The research data was obtained from questionnaires given to 282 SMEs in Depok from various fields. Multiple regression analysis is used where SPSS Version 23 is used as an analysis tool. The findings of the study obtained the influence of financial literacy on the saving behavior of SMEs in Depok. On the other hand, business income has no effect on the saving behavior of SMEs.

An Investigation of Occupant Energy-Saving Behavior in Vernacular Houses of Behramkale (Assos)

Despite its well-known potential to reduce energy use, the inquiry of whether vernacular architecture prompts its occupants to have energy-saving behavior has been neglected. This paper aims to investigate the influence of vernacular houses on the behavior of their occupants and other parameters affecting occupant behavior. Along with site observations, 117 surveys including multiple choice and open-ended questions were conducted with households living in vernacular houses and new houses in the historical settlement, Behramkale (Assos). A principal component analysis was conducted for the whole sample to determine whether there is a relationship between energy saving occupant behavior and energy use, household, and housing characteristics. Then further analyses were performed to explore the differences in descriptive properties of occupants. Household characteristics were found to be associated with occupant behavior. The females and married people tended to show more energy-saving behavior and sought to use their houses in more environmentally friendly ways. The older people were more likely to show no-cost energy-saving behavior. The households with high income and high-level education tended to invest in energy-efficient appliances but consumed more energy than other households. Besides the effects of household characteristics, historical heritage, and landscape values specific to the area influenced occupant behavior. Vernacular houses enabled the households to behave in a certain way and to continue the traditional daily habits related to sustainable, energy-saving behaviors.

Why Low-Carbon Publicity Effect Limits? The Role of Heterogeneous Intention in Reducing Household Energy Consumption

Low-carbon knowledge is seen as having a key role in interfering with household energy consumption behaviors by wide consensus from political and academic areas. Whether low-carbon publicity will help to reduce household energy consumption is still in dispute. By constructing an integrated knowledge-intention-behavior model and using 1335 detailed survey questionnaires of household energy behavior in Henan Province, the central area in China, this paper finds that in the developing area low-carbon knowledge or publicity cannot positively impact household energy-saving behavior even if mediated by energy awareness and energy-saving attitudes. Low-carbon knowledge does improve energy-saving attitude and attitude does not decrease household energy consumption directly. Familiarity with particular energy-saving knowledge would decrease the household energy consumption but not significantly in the statistics. Path analysis unfolds the reason that the heterogeneous effects of purchase-based intention and habitual intention explain energy consumption behavior. Subgroup analysis supports those economic factors of income and energy prices play key roles in explaining such household energy consumption behavior in the rapid urbanization area. This paper gives new evidence on the residential energy-saving behavior intervention among developing areas.

Review on the Importance of Gender Perspective in Household Energy-Saving Behavior and Energy Transition for Sustainability

Energy-saving and efficiency represent a crucial role in achieving a clean environment as well as economic and social development, providing substantial benefits to stakeholders, including householders. Better cost savings can be achieved by simply changing behavior. However, real energy users lack proper technical energy knowledge, awareness, and education in most cases. In most countries, women are involved in a higher percentage of energy activities in household chores but have less gender participation in energy decisions. In this regard, a gender perspective effectively understands energy users’ pragmatic and strategic needs for energy-saving behavior improvement. Previous literature reviews have been focusing on specific aspects of energy sustainability; however, no review has focused on energy-saving from a gender perspective to the best of our knowledge. It aims to provide a systematic review of literature on energy-saving and management, highlighting the importance of gender roles and fulfilling the literature’s study gaps that provide future possible research streams. The review finds that females use lower energy than males in household activities that has supported in household energy-saving behavior. In addition, gender, income, family composition, ownership, and education are significant influencing factors in energy-saving behavior, and gender differences are rooted in socialization, responsibility, and choice of energy appliances that have impacted energy decisions influencing energy-saving behavior and sustainability goals.

НЕКОТОРЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ ЗДОРОВЬЕСБЕРЕГАЮЩЕГО ПОВЕДЕНИЯ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ ПРИГРАНИЧНЫХ РЕГИОНОВ РОССИИ

The relevance of the research stipulated by the fact that health is the most important component of human capital, the quality of realization of human labor activity depends on its condition, and, hence, how useful it will be for both his family and the state as a whole. A significant part of the population in Russia does not have access to basic medical care, for many years there has been a decline in the population, and in terms of life expectancy, our country ranks 96th in the world. The aim of this work is to analyze the condition of health capital and health-saving behavior of the population in six border regions of Russia. The empirical basis is the data of the sociological survey conducted in 2020-2021 by the research team of the Altai State University. The main features of the behavior of the residents of the selected regions in preserving their own health revealed. When assessing their health, the respondents most often indicated average and good health. The majority of the population has chronic diseases, among which gastrointestinal diseases, hypertension and spinal diseases are the commonest. Almost half of the respondents do not consume alcohol and do not smoke, regularly see a doctor and do sports in order to stay healthy. The scientific novelty of the study consists in the assessment of the state of health of the population in the border regions, as well as their strategies of health-saving behavior. The practical value of the study consists in the presentation of actual assessments of the health capital of the population of the selected regions, allowing the state to take measures to improve the situation in the regions on this issue.