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Financial Illiteracy and Pension Contributions: A Field Experiment on Compound Interest in China

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  • Changcheng Song
  • Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh

Abstract

I conduct a field experiment to study the relationship between peoples’ misunderstanding of compound interest and their pension contributions in rural China. I find that explaining the concept of compound interest to subjects increased pension contributions by roughly 40%. The treatment effect is larger for those who underestimate compound interest than for those who overestimate compound interest. Moreover, financial education enables households to partially correct their misunderstanding of compound interest. I structurally estimate the level of misunderstanding of compound interest and conduct a counterfactual welfare analysis: lifetime utility increases by about 10% if subjects’ misunderstanding of compound interest is eliminated.Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.

Suggested Citation

  • Changcheng Song & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2020. "Financial Illiteracy and Pension Contributions: A Field Experiment on Compound Interest in China," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 916-949.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:33:y:2020:i:2:p:916-949.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhz074
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    Cited by:

    1. Goda, Gopi Shah & Levy, Matthew R. & Flaherty Manchester, Colleen & Sojourner, Aaron & Tasoff, Joshua & Xiao, Jiusi, 2023. "Are retirement planning tools substitutes or complements to financial capability?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 561-573.
    2. Gui, Zhengqing & Huang, Yangguang & Zhao, Xiaojian, 2021. "Whom to educate? Financial literacy and investor awareness," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Stylianos Papageorgiou & Dimitrios Xefteris, 2021. "A Collective Investment in Financial Literacy by Heterogeneous Households," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 04-2021, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    4. Gui, Zhengqing & Huang, Yangguang & Zhao, Xiaojian, 2024. "Financial fraud and investor awareness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 104-123.
    5. Zhou, Yang & Yang, Manfang & Gan, Xu, 2023. "Education and financial literacy: Evidence from compulsory schooling law in China," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 335-346.
    6. Gallego-Losada, Rocío & Montero-Navarro, Antonio & Rodríguez-Sánchez, José-Luis & González-Torres, Thais, 2022. "Retirement planning and financial literacy, at the crossroads. A bibliometric analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    7. Olckers, Matthew, 2021. "On track for retirement?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 76-88.
    8. Cheng Yuan & Xiaoxiao Wang & Li Lin, 2023. "Why Do Financially Illiterate Students Perceive Lower Education Returns? Evidence From a Survey in Rural China," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.
    9. Shulin Xu & Kangqi Jiang, 2024. "Knowledge creates value: the role of financial literacy in entrepreneurial behavior," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Bingzheng Chen & Peiyun Deng & Xiaodong Fan, 2022. "Effect of compulsory education on retirement financial outcomes: evidence from China," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(4), pages 958-989, October.

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