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Saving behavior and cognitive abilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

T. Parker Ballinger ,
Eric Hudson ,
Leonie Karkoviata  and
Nathaniel T. Wilcox
T. Parker Ballinger
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Finance, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX 75962-3009, USA
Eric Hudson
Affiliation:
New Mexico Public Defender Department, Las Cruces, NM 88001, USA
Leonie Karkoviata
Affiliation:
College of Business, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX 77002, USA
Nathaniel T. Wilcox*
Affiliation:
Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866, USA
*
e-mail: nwilcox@chapman.edu
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Abstract

Experiments on saving behavior reveal substantial heterogeneity of behavior and performance. We show that this heterogeneity is reliable and examine several potential sources of it, including cognitive ability and personality scales. The strongest predictors of both behavior and performance are two cognitive ability measures. We conclude that complete explanations of heterogeneity in dynamic decision making require attention to complexity and individual differences in cognitive constraints.

Keywords

Bounded rationalityHeterogeneityCognitive abilitiesConsumption and saving

JEL classification

E21: Consumption • Saving • Wealth C91: Laboratory, Individual Behavior D91: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡
Type
Original Paper
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 2011 , pp. 349 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Economic Science Association

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Footnotes

This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation with award numbers SES-0350748 (Ballinger) and SES-0350565 (Wilcox), as well as by the University of Houston Research Council. We are grateful to Randall Engle and Richard Heitz of the Attention and Working Memory Lab at Georgia Tech for providing us with their “automatic operation span” software (and advice from D. Stephen Lindsay that led us to them). Bram Cadsby, Glenn Harrison, Ondrej Rydval, Tomomi Tanaka, Mark Thompson, two anonymous referees and the editor provided help or useful commentary, and Sharon O'Donnell and Rick Wilson provided valuable advice on software programming. None of these people are responsible for any errors that remain.

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi: 10.1007/s10683-010-9271-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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