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  • 2008
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Using Financial Innovation to Support Savers: From Coercion to Excitement

By: Peter Tufano
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:59
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Abstract

We review a wide variety of programs that support savings by families, in particular by low- and moderate-income families. These programs range from ones that literally compel families to save, to those that make it hard not to save, make it easier to save, provide financial incentives to induce savings, leverage social networks to support savers, and finally, to programs that excite people to saving. These programs involve a number of different stakeholders, including governmental entities, social intermediaries, non-profit organizations, and for-profit firms including financial institutions. They embody a number of different assumptions about incentives, drawing from economics, psychology, and sociology. We describe examples of each program and provide some information on their economics and effectiveness. Our goal is not to identify the "best" program, but rather to lay out the range of innovations to meet the needs of heterogeneous potential savers.

Keywords

Saving; Motivation and Incentives; Programs; Income; Personal Finance; Family and Family Relationships; Performance Effectiveness

Citation

Tufano, Peter, and Daniel Schneider. "Using Financial Innovation to Support Savers: From Coercion to Excitement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 08-075, April 2008.
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About The Author

Peter Tufano

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  • Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited (A) (CW) By: Peter Tufano
  • BASIX (Abridged) By: Shawn Cole and Peter Tufano
  • Bouncing Out of the Banking System: An Empirical Analysis of Involuntary Bank Account Closures By: Dennis Campbell, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez and Peter Tufano
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