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Sandro Ambuehl

Bio: Sandro Ambuehl is an academic researcher from University of Zurich. The author has contributed to research in topics: Incentive & Financial literacy. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 21 publications receiving 250 citations. Previous affiliations of Sandro Ambuehl include University of Toronto & Stanford University.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper found that individuals underreact to increasing the informativeness of a signal, thus undervalue high-quality information, and that they disproportionately prefer information that may yield certainty, mainly due to non-standard belief updating.

62 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a vignette study on MTurk concerning participation in medical trials showed that a substantial minority of subjects concurred with the IRB's decision to disallow high incentives they deem coercive.
Abstract: IRBs can disallow high incentives they deem coercive. A vignette study on MTurk concerning participation in medical trials shows that a substantial minority of subjects concurs. They think...

51 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: The authors introduced a method for measuring the quality of financial decision making built around a notion of financial competence, which gauges the alignment between individuals' choices and those they would make if they properly understood their opportunities.
Abstract: We introduce a method for measuring the quality of financial decision making built around a notion of financial competence, which gauges the alignment between individuals' choices and those they would make if they properly understood their opportunities. We use it to document the potential pitfalls of the types of brief rhetoric-laden interventions commonly used for adult financial education. Motivational rhetoric can render the effects of such interventions indiscriminate even when people appear to understand and internalize the targeted concepts. Conventional methods of evaluation involving financial literacy, self-reported decision strategies, and directional effects on choices do not reliably detect these deficiencies.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

28 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of financial competence, a measure of the extent to which individuals' financial choices align with those they would make if they properly understood their opportunity sets.
Abstract: We introduce the concept of financial competence, a measure of the extent to which individuals’ financial choices align with those they would make if they properly understood their opportunity sets. Unlike existing measures of the quality of financial decision making, the concept is firmly rooted in the principles of choice-based behavioral welfare analysis; it also avoids the types of paternalistic judgments that are common in policy discussions. We document the importance of assessing financial competence by demonstrating, through an example, that an educational intervention can appear highly successful according to conventional outcome measures while failing to improve the quality of financial decision making. Specifically, we study a simple intervention concerning compound interest that significantly improves performance on a test of conceptual knowledge (which subjects report operationalizing in their decisions), and appears to counteract exponential growth bias. However, financial competence (welfare) does not improve. We trace the mechanisms that account for these seemingly divergent findings.

23 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Ambuehl et al. as mentioned in this paper showed that people with higher costs of information processing respond more to an increase in the incentive for a complex transaction, and decide to participate based on a worse understanding of its consequences.
Abstract: Our recent working paper (Ambuehl, Ockenfels, and Stewart 2017) shows theoretically and experimentally that people with higher costs of information processing respond more to an increase in the incentive for a complex transaction, and decide to participate based on a worse understanding of its consequences. Here, we address the resulting tradeoff between the principle of informed consent and the principle of free contract. Respondents to our vignette study on oocyte donation overwhelmingly favor the former and support policies that require donors to thoroughly understand the transaction. This finding helps design markets that are not only efficient but also considered ethical.

23 citations


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01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The handbook of psychological testing is universally compatible with any devices to read and is available in the digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can download it instantly.
Abstract: Thank you very much for reading handbook of psychological testing. As you may know, people have search hundreds times for their favorite readings like this handbook of psychological testing, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their laptop. handbook of psychological testing is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can download it instantly. Our digital library hosts in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the handbook of psychological testing is universally compatible with any devices to read.

1,177 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

375 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conceptualize perceived financial well-being as two related but separate constructs: (i) stress related to the management of money today (current money management stress), and (ii) a sense of security in one's financial future (expected future financial security).
Abstract: Though perceived financial well-being is viewed as an important topic of consumer research, the literature contains no accepted definition of this construct. Further, there has been little systematic examination of how perceived financial well-being may affect overall well-being. Using consumer financial narratives, several large-scale surveys, and two experiments, we conceptualize perceived financial well-being as two related but separate constructs: 1) stress related to the management of money today (current money management stress), and 2) a sense of security in one’s financial future (expected future financial security). We develop and validate measures of these constructs (web appendix A) and then demonstrate their relationship to overall well-being, controlling for other life domains and objective measures of the financial domain. Our findings demonstrate that perceived financial well-being is a key predictor of overall well-being and comparable in magnitude to the combined effect of other life domains (job satisfaction, physical health assessment, and relationship support satisfaction). Further, the relative importance of current money management stress to overall well-being varies by income groups and due to the differing antecedents of current money management stress and expected future financial security. Implications for financial well-being and education efforts are offered.

318 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors combine a field experiment with a simple theoretical framework to evaluate the welfare effects of one especially policy-relevant intervention, home energy social comparison reports, and develop a prediction algorithm for optimal targeting; this approach would double the welfare gains.
Abstract: "Nudge"-style interventions are often deemed successful if they generate large behavior change at low cost, but they are rarely subjected to full social welfare evaluations. We combine a field experiment with a simple theoretical framework to evaluate the welfare effects of one especially policy-relevant intervention, home energy social comparison reports. In our sample, the reports increase social welfare, although traditional evaluation approaches overstate gains because they ignore significant costs incurred by nudge recipients. Overall, home energy report welfare gains might be overstated by $620 million. We develop a prediction algorithm for optimal targeting; this approach would double the welfare gains.

268 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper developed statistical techniques for handling experimental measurement error and applied them to data from the Caltech Cohort Study, which conducts repeated incentivized surveys of the student body, demonstrating that results change substantially when measurement error is accounted for.
Abstract: Measurement error is ubiquitous in experimental work. It leads to imperfect statistical controls, attenuated estimated effects of elicited behaviors, and biased correlations between characteristics. We develop statistical techniques for handling experimental measurement error. These techniques are applied to data from the Caltech Cohort Study, which conducts repeated incentivized surveys of the Caltech student body. We replicate three classic experiments, demonstrating that results change substantially when measurement error is accounted for. Collectively, these results show that failing to properly account for measurement error may cause a field-wide bias leading scholars to identify “new” phenomena.

200 citations