Savings and incentives

Numerous public policies seek to encourage private saving. These include the tax-favoured treatment of certain savings vehicles (including private pensions and the various types of ISA), as well as other policies more directly aimed at effecting behavioural change (such as automatic enrolment into employer-provided pensions, financial education programmes and matched saving schemes).  Our research in this area aims to investigate the responsiveness of individual saving behaviour to financial and other incentives. This includes the evaluation of government policies designed specifically to influence private saving behaviour, such as the Saving Gateway and automatic enrolment.