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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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Posted ContentDOI
TL;DR: A method for experimentally evaluating interventions designed to improve the quality of choices in settings where people imperfectly comprehend consequences is introduced, which yields an intuitive sufficient statistic for welfare that admits formal interpretations even when consumers suffer from biases outside the scope of analysis.
Abstract: We introduce a method for experimentally evaluating interventions designed to improve the quality of choices in settings where people imperfectly comprehend consequences. Among other virtues, our method yields an intuitive sufficient statistic for welfare that admits formal interpretations even when consumers suffer from biases outside the scope of analysis. We use it to study a financial education intervention, which we find improves the quality of decisions only when it incorporates practice and feedback, contrary to the implications of analyses based on conventional efficacy metrics. We trace the failures of conventional metrics to violations of assumptions that our method avoids.

3 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: This paper 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.

3 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors identify a composition effect whereby incentives disproportionately increase participation among those for whom learning is harder, and these individuals use less information to decide whether to participate, which makes disappointment more likely.
Abstract: Participation payments are used in many transactions about which people know little, but can learn more: incentives for medical trial participation, signing bonuses for job applicants, or price rebates on consumer durables. Who opts into the transaction when given such incentives? We theoretically and experimentally identify a composition effect whereby incentives disproportionately increase participation among those for whom learning is harder. Moreover, these individuals use less information to decide whether to participate, which makes disappointment more likely. The learning-based composition effect is stronger in settings in which information acquisition is more difficult.

2 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors showed that women with lower cognitive ability respond more to an increase in the incentive for egg donation, and deem this ethically problematic, and they consider costly informational interventions a more ethical means of raising participation than spending equivalent resources as additional incentive.
Abstract: In a recent working paper (Ambuehl & Ockenfels, 2017) we show theoretically and in pilot experiments that people with higher costs of information processing will respond more strongly to a given increase in the incentive for a complex transaction, and will decide to participate based on a worse understanding of its consequences. In this paper, respondents to a vignette study predict that women with lower cognitive ability respond more to an increase in the incentive for egg donation, and deem this ethically problematic. They consider costly informational interventions a more ethical means of raising participation than spending equivalent resources as additional incentive, although they believe participants would prefer the latter.

2 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that increasing participation payments disproportionately attracts individuals for whom learning about the transaction is harder, and these participants decide based on worse information and are more likely to regret their decision ex post.
Abstract: Payments and discounts incentivize participation in many transactions about which people know little, but can learn more --- payments for medical trial participation, signing bonuses for job applicants, or price rebates on consumer durables. Who opts into the transaction when given such incentives? We show theoretically and experimentally that increasing participation payments disproportionately attracts individuals for whom learning about the transaction is harder. These participants decide based on worse information and are more likely to regret their decision ex post. The learning-based selection effect is stronger when information acquisition is more costly. Moreover, it outweighs selection on risk preferences in many of our treatments.

2 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