We study nearly 7,000 retirement accounts during the April 1994-August 1998 period. Several interesting patterns emerge. Most asset allocations are extreme (either 100 percent or zero percent in equities) and there is inertia in asset allocations. Equity allocations are higher for males, married...

As more and more public pension systems are shifting away from a defined benefit only framework, the complexity of the financial decisions facing public employees is increasing. This raises some concerns about the financial literacy of participants and their ability to make informed decisions....

The Handbook of Behavioral Finance is a comprehensive, topical and concise source of cutting-edge research on recent developments in behavioral finance.

The world’s allegedly shortest mail correspondence took place in 1862. The French author Victor Hugo had gone on vacation as his big novel Les miserable was published. But Hugo could not refrain himself from writing to the publisher to ask how it went. The letter read: « ? » and the...

In 1998, Sweden introduced a second tier of mandatory individual accounts in the public pension system. This paper examinesinvestment choice in the Swedish individual account scheme focusing on two aspects of the investment decision: Do workers with high risk in their human capital diversify...