Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
  • Research
    • Research
    • Publications
    • Global Research Centers
    • Case Development
    • Initiatives & Projects
    • Research Services
    • Seminars & Conferences
    →
  • Publications→

Publications

Publications

Filter Results: (86) Arrow Down
Filter Results: (86) Arrow Down Arrow Up

Show Results For

  • All HBS Web  (119,979)
    • Faculty Publications  (86)

    Show Results For

    • All HBS Web  (119,979)
      • Faculty Publications  (86)

      Beshears, JohnRemove Beshears, John →

      Page 1 of 86 Results →
      • 2025
      • Chapter

      Employer-Based Short-Term Savings Accounts

      By: Sarah Holmes Berk, John Beshears, Jay Garg, James J. Choi and David Laibson
      We study the introduction of a choice architecture design intended to increase short-term savings among employees at five U.K. firms. Employees were offered the opportunity to opt into a payroll deduction program that auto-deposits funds from each paycheck into a... View Details
      Keywords: Personal Finance; Compensation and Benefits; Well-being; Behavior; Investment Funds; Employees; United Kingdom
      Citation
      Read Now
      Related
      Berk, Sarah Holmes, John Beshears, Jay Garg, James J. Choi, and David Laibson. "Employer-Based Short-Term Savings Accounts." Chap. 21 in The Elgar Companion to Consumer Behaviour and the Sustainable Development Goals, edited by Lucia A. Reisch and Cass R. Sunstein, 359–386. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025.
      • March 2025
      • Article

      Optimal Illiquidity

      By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
      We study the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and present bias with naive beliefs. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each with a different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty.... View Details
      Keywords: Retirement; Financial Liquidity; Personal Finance; Saving
      Citation
      Read Now
      Related
      Beshears, John, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Optimal Illiquidity." Art. 103996. Journal of Financial Economics 165 (March 2025).
      • January 2025
      • Article

      Automatic Enrollment with a 12% Default Contribution Rate

      By: John Beshears, Ruofei Guo, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and James J. Choi
      We study a retirement savings plan with a default contribution rate of 12% of income, which is much higher than previously studied defaults. Twenty-five percent of employees had not opted out of this default 12 months after hire; a literature review finds that the... View Details
      Keywords: Retirement Savings; Defined Contribution Retirement Plan; Automatic Enrollment; Retirement; Saving; Income; Decision Choices and Conditions
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Read Now
      Purchase
      Related
      Beshears, John, Ruofei Guo, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and James J. Choi. "Automatic Enrollment with a 12% Default Contribution Rate." Journal of Pension Economics & Finance 24, no. 1 (January 2025): 152–182. (20th Anniversary Special Issue.)
      • 2024
      • Working Paper

      Smaller than We Thought? The Effect of Automatic Savings Policies

      By: James J. Choi, David Laibson, Jordan Cammarota, Richard Lombardo and John Beshears
      Medium- and long-run dynamics undermine the effect of automatic enrollment and default savings-rate auto-escalation on retirement savings. Our analysis of 401(k) plans incorporates the facts that employees frequently leave firms (often before matching contributions... View Details
      Keywords: Personal Finance; Saving; Retirement; Behavioral Finance; Compensation and Benefits
      Citation
      Read Now
      Related
      Choi, James J., David Laibson, Jordan Cammarota, Richard Lombardo, and John Beshears. "Smaller than We Thought? The Effect of Automatic Savings Policies." Working Paper.
      • 2024
      • Working Paper

      Does Pension Automatic Enrollment Increase Debt? Evidence from a Large-Scale Natural Experiment

      By: John Beshears, Matthew Blakstad, James J. Choi, Christopher Firth, John Gathergood, David Laibson, Richard Notley, Jesal D. Sheth, Will Sandbrook and Neil Stewart
      Does automatic enrollment into retirement saving increase household debt? We study the randomized roll-out of automatic enrollment pensions to ~160,000 employers in the United Kingdom with 2-29 employees. We find that the additional savings generated through automatic... View Details
      Keywords: Retirement; Saving; Personal Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Compensation and Benefits
      Citation
      Read Now
      Related
      Beshears, John, Matthew Blakstad, James J. Choi, Christopher Firth, John Gathergood, David Laibson, Richard Notley, Jesal D. Sheth, Will Sandbrook, and Neil Stewart. "Does Pension Automatic Enrollment Increase Debt? Evidence from a Large-Scale Natural Experiment." Working Paper, October 2024.
      • 2024
      • Working Paper

      Employer-Based Short-Term Savings Accounts

      By: Sarah Holmes Berk, John Beshears, Jay Garg, James J. Choi and David Laibson
      We study the introduction of a choice architecture design intended to increase short-term savings among employees at five U.K. firms. Employees were offered the opportunity to opt into a payroll deduction program that auto-deposits funds from each paycheck into a... View Details
      Keywords: Behavior; Personal Finance; Investment Funds; Employees; Saving; United Kingdom
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Read Now
      Related
      Berk, Sarah Holmes, John Beshears, Jay Garg, James J. Choi, and David Laibson. "Employer-Based Short-Term Savings Accounts." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 32074, January 2024.
      • December 2023
      • Article

      Save More Today or Tomorrow: The Role of Urgency in Precommitment Design

      By: Joseph Reiff, Hengchen Dai, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman and Shlomo Benartzi
      To encourage farsighted behaviors, past research suggests that marketers may be wise to invite consumers to pre-commit to adopt them “later.” However, the authors propose that people will draw different inferences from different types of pre-commitment offers, and that... View Details
      Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Decision Choices and Conditions
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Read Now
      Purchase
      Related
      Reiff, Joseph, Hengchen Dai, John Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman, and Shlomo Benartzi. "Save More Today or Tomorrow: The Role of Urgency in Precommitment Design." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 60, no. 6 (December 2023): 1095–1113.
      • 2023
      • Article

      A Randomized Trial of Behavioral Nudges Delivered through Text Messages to Increase Influenza Vaccination among Patients with an Upcoming Primary Care Visit

      By: Mitesh S. Patel, Katherine L. Milkman, Linnea Gandhi, Heather N. Graci, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Jake Rothschild, Modupe Akinola, John Beshears, Jonathan E. Bogard, Alison Buttenheim, Christopher Chabris, Gretchen B. Chapman, James J. Choi, Hengchen Dai, Craig R. Fox, Amir Goren, Matthew D. Hilchey, Jillian Hmurovic, Leslie John, Dean Karlan, Melanie Kim, David Laibson, Cait Lamberton, Brigitte C. Madrian, Michelle N. Meyer, Maria Modanu, Jimin Nam, Todd Rogers, Renante Rondina, Silvia Saccardo, Maheen Shermohammed, Dilip Soman, Jehan Sparks, Caleb Warren, Megan Weber, Ron Berman, Chalanda N. Evans, Seung Hyeong Lee, Christopher K. Snider, Eli Tsukayama, Christophe Van den Bulte, Kevin G. Volpp and Angela L. Duckworth
      Purpose: To evaluate if nudges delivered by text message prior to an upcoming primary care visit can increase influenza vaccination rates.
      Design: Randomized, controlled trial.
      Setting: Two health systems in the Northeastern US between September 2020 and... View Details
      Keywords: Vaccination; Health Care and Treatment; Interpersonal Communication; Communication Technology; Behavior; Health Industry
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Read Now
      Purchase
      Related
      Patel, Mitesh S., Katherine L. Milkman, Linnea Gandhi, Heather N. Graci, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Jake Rothschild, Modupe Akinola, John Beshears, Jonathan E. Bogard, Alison Buttenheim, Christopher Chabris, Gretchen B. Chapman, James J. Choi, Hengchen Dai, Craig R. Fox, Amir Goren, Matthew D. Hilchey, Jillian Hmurovic, Leslie John, Dean Karlan, Melanie Kim, David Laibson, Cait Lamberton, Brigitte C. Madrian, Michelle N. Meyer, Maria Modanu, Jimin Nam, Todd Rogers, Renante Rondina, Silvia Saccardo, Maheen Shermohammed, Dilip Soman, Jehan Sparks, Caleb Warren, Megan Weber, Ron Berman, Chalanda N. Evans, Seung Hyeong Lee, Christopher K. Snider, Eli Tsukayama, Christophe Van den Bulte, Kevin G. Volpp, and Angela L. Duckworth. "A Randomized Trial of Behavioral Nudges Delivered through Text Messages to Increase Influenza Vaccination among Patients with an Upcoming Primary Care Visit." American Journal of Health Promotion 37, no. 3 (2023): 324–332.
      • 2024
      • Working Paper

      Automating Short-Term Payroll Savings: Evidence from Two Large U.K. Experiments

      By: Sarah Holmes Berk, James J. Choi, Jay Garg, John Beshears and David Laibson
      Automatic enrollment is often used to increase retirement savings. What are the effects of using it (or, alternatively, requiring an active enrollment choice) to increase short-term savings? We evaluate two experiments in the U.K. at employers that enable workers to... View Details
      Keywords: Retirement Savings; Participation; Automatic Enrollment; Retirement; Human Resources
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Read Now
      Purchase
      Related
      Berk, Sarah Holmes, James J. Choi, Jay Garg, John Beshears, and David Laibson. "Automating Short-Term Payroll Savings: Evidence from Two Large U.K. Experiments." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 32581, June 2024.
      • 2022
      • Article

      How to Choose a Default

      By: John Beshears, Richard T. Mason and Shlomo Benartzi
      We have developed a model for setting a default when a population is choosing among ordered choices—that is, ones listed in ascending or descending order. A company, for instance, might want to set a default contribution rate that will increase employees’ average... View Details
      Keywords: Nudge; Choice Architecture; Behavioral Economics; Behavioral Science; Default; Savings; Decision Choices and Conditions; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives
      Citation
      Read Now
      Related
      Beshears, John, Richard T. Mason, and Shlomo Benartzi. "How to Choose a Default." Behavioral Science & Policy 8, no. 1 (2022): 1–15.
      • Article

      Present Bias Causes and Then Dissipates Auto-enrollment Savings Effects

      By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Peter Maxted
      Present bias causes procrastination, which leads households to stick with auto-enrollment defaults. However, present bias also engenders overconsumption. Separation from each employer generates a rollover of 401(k) balances to an individual retirement account (IRA)... View Details
      Keywords: Present Bias; Procrastination; Personal Finance; Decision Making; Social Psychology; Retirement
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Read Now
      Related
      Beshears, John, James J. Choi, David Laibson, and Peter Maxted. "Present Bias Causes and Then Dissipates Auto-enrollment Savings Effects." AEA Papers and Proceedings 112 (May 2022): 136–141.
      • March 2022
      • Module Note

      A Behavioral Science Perspective on Motivation and Incentives

      By: John Beshears and Ashley Whillans
      This module note for instructors describes a module that integrates insights from the behavioral science of motivation into the economic analysis of incentive systems. View Details
      Keywords: Motivation; Incentives; Behavioral Science; Behavioral Economics; Motivation and Incentives; Economics; Analysis; Human Resources
      Citation
      Purchase
      Related
      Beshears, John, and Ashley Whillans. "A Behavioral Science Perspective on Motivation and Incentives." Harvard Business School Module Note 922-033, March 2022.
      • February 2022
      • Teaching Note

      Stoy Foods

      By: John Beshears
      Teaching Note for the "Stoy Foods" Exercise (Harvard Business School Exercise 918-044, 918-045, 918-046, and 918-047). View Details
      Keywords: Motivation; Framing; Job Design; Family Business
      Citation
      Purchase
      Related
      Beshears, John. "Stoy Foods." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 922-035, February 2022.
      • February 2022
      • Teaching Note

      Magrabi: Fulfilling the Vision for the Future

      By: John Beshears
      Teaching Note for “Magrabi: Fulfilling the Vision for the Future” (Harvard Business School Case No. 920-009). View Details
      Keywords: Habit; Retail; Sales Effectiveness
      Citation
      Purchase
      Related
      Beshears, John. "Magrabi: Fulfilling the Vision for the Future." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 922-034, February 2022.
      • February 2022
      • Module Note

      Behavioral Economics and Choice Architecture

      By: John Beshears
      This module note for instructors describes a module on the design of choice architecture solutions to organizational problems. View Details
      Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Choice Architecture; Organizations; Problems and Challenges; Decision Choices and Conditions; Economics
      Citation
      Purchase
      Related
      Beshears, John. "Behavioral Economics and Choice Architecture." Harvard Business School Module Note 922-029, February 2022.
      • February 2022
      • Article

      Borrowing to Save? The Impact of Automatic Enrollment on Debt

      By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and William L. Skimmyhorn
      Does automatic enrollment into a retirement plan increase financial distress due to increased borrowing outside the plan? We study a natural experiment created when the U.S. Army began automatically enrolling newly hired civilian employees into the Thrift Savings Plan.... View Details
      Keywords: Retirement Savings; Automatic Enrollment; Choice Architecture; Nudge; Financial Distress; Retirement; Saving; Borrowing and Debt; Behavior
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Read Now
      Related
      Beshears, John, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and William L. Skimmyhorn. "Borrowing to Save? The Impact of Automatic Enrollment on Debt." Journal of Finance 77, no. 1 (February 2022): 403–447.
      • January 2022
      • Teaching Note

      Negotiating for Equal Pay: The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (A) and (B)

      By: John Beshears and Christine Exley
      Teaching note for "Negotiating for Equal Pay: The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (A) and (B), nos. 920-029 and 920-030. View Details
      Citation
      Purchase
      Related
      Beshears, John, and Christine Exley. "Negotiating for Equal Pay: The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 922-032, January 2022.
      • Article

      Megastudies Improve the Impact of Applied Behavioural Science

      By: Katherine L. Milkman, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Pepi Pandiloski, Yeji Park, Aneesh Rai, Max Bazerman, John Beshears, Lauri Bonacorsi, Colin Camerer, Edward Chang, Gretchen Chapman, Robert Cialdini, Hengchen Dai, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Ayelet Fishbach, James J. Gross, Samantha Horn, Alexa Hubbard, Steven J. Jones, Dean Karlan, Tim Kautz, Erika Kirgios, Joowon Klusowski, Ariella Kristal, Rahul Ladhania, Jens Ludwig, George Loewenstein, Barbara Mellers, Sendhil Mullainathan, Silvia Saccardo, Jann Spiess, Gaurav Suri, Joachim H. Talloen, Jamie Taxer, Yaacov Trope, Lyle Ungar, Kevin G. Volpp, Ashley V. Whillans, Jonathan Zinman and Angela L. Duckworth
      Policy-makers are increasingly turning to behavioural science for insights about how to improve citizens’ decisions and outcomes. Typically, different scientists test different intervention ideas in different samples using different outcomes over different time... View Details
      Keywords: Policy Making; Behavioral Science; Behavior; Change; Decision Making; Policy
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Read Now
      Related
      Milkman, Katherine L., Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Pepi Pandiloski, Yeji Park, Aneesh Rai, Max Bazerman, John Beshears, Lauri Bonacorsi, Colin Camerer, Edward Chang, Gretchen Chapman, Robert Cialdini, Hengchen Dai, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Ayelet Fishbach, James J. Gross, Samantha Horn, Alexa Hubbard, Steven J. Jones, Dean Karlan, Tim Kautz, Erika Kirgios, Joowon Klusowski, Ariella Kristal, Rahul Ladhania, Jens Ludwig, George Loewenstein, Barbara Mellers, Sendhil Mullainathan, Silvia Saccardo, Jann Spiess, Gaurav Suri, Joachim H. Talloen, Jamie Taxer, Yaacov Trope, Lyle Ungar, Kevin G. Volpp, Ashley V. Whillans, Jonathan Zinman, and Angela L. Duckworth. "Megastudies Improve the Impact of Applied Behavioural Science." Nature 600, no. 7889 (December 16, 2021): 478–483.
      • Article

      Using Fresh Starts to Nudge Increased Retirement Savings

      By: John Beshears, Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman and Shlomo Benartzi
      We conducted a field experiment to study the effect of framing future moments in time as new beginnings (or “fresh starts”). University employees (N=6,082) received mailings with an opportunity to choose between increasing their contributions to a savings plan... View Details
      Keywords: Choice Architecture; Randomized Field Experiment; Savings; New Beginning; Fresh Start; Saving; Retirement; Behavior
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Read Now
      Related
      Beshears, John, Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, and Shlomo Benartzi. "Using Fresh Starts to Nudge Increased Retirement Savings." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 167 (November 2021): 72–87.
      • July 2021
      • Article

      Creating Exercise Habits Using Incentives: The Trade-off Between Flexibility and Routinization

      By: John Beshears, Hae Nim Lee, Katherine L. Milkman, Robert Mislavsky and Jessica Wisdom
      Habits involve regular, cue-triggered routines. In a field experiment, we tested whether incentivizing exercise routines—paying participants each time they visit the gym within a planned, daily two-hour window—leads to more persistent exercise than offering flexible... View Details
      Keywords: Behavior And Behavioral Decision Making; Healthcare; Exercise; Habit; Routine; Health; Behavior; Decision Making
      Citation
      Find at Harvard
      Related
      Beshears, John, Hae Nim Lee, Katherine L. Milkman, Robert Mislavsky, and Jessica Wisdom. "Creating Exercise Habits Using Incentives: The Trade-off Between Flexibility and Routinization." Management Science 67, no. 7 (July 2021): 4139–4171.
      • 1
      • 2
      • 3
      • 4
      • 5
      • →
      ǁ
      Campus Map
      Harvard Business School
      Soldiers Field
      Boston, MA 02163
      →Map & Directions
      →More Contact Information
      • Make a Gift
      • Site Map
      • Jobs
      • Harvard University
      • Trademarks
      • Policies
      • Accessibility
      • Digital Accessibility
      Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.