Seminar: A social norm nudge to save more: a field experiment at a large retail bank

A large fraction of households have little savings buffer and are therefore vulnerable to financial shocks. We ran a small-scale survey experiment and a large-scale field experiment at a retail bank in the Netherlands to examine whether a social norm nudge can stimulate households with little savings buffer to save more. The results from the survey experiment show that a social norm nudge results in an increase in intended savings. In line with this, we find in our field experiment that households who are exposed to the social norm nudge click more often on a link that brings them to a webpage where they can start or adjust an automatic savings plan. However, analyzing detailed bank data, we find no treatment effect on actual savings, neither in the short nor in the long run. Our null findings are fairly precisely estimated.