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Remaking Retirement Investors

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  • Paul Langley
  • Adam Leaver

Abstract

Summoned up within the defined-contribution (DC) plans that now predominate in the UK and USA, the financial subject of the retirement investor is identified by behavioural economics as the crucial problem to be solved in present-day occupational pension provision. Interventions are being made that: promote individual participation in plans through auto-enrolment techniques; increase the rate at which individuals make tax-favoured payments into plans through contribution escalator schemes; and cater for the decision-making and risk management deficiencies of individuals by providing default option funds with in-built ‘life-style’ and ‘target-date’ investment strategies. After Deleuze and Foucault, we argue that this ‘behavioural revolution’ is a rearticulation of the heterogeneous elements which, in relation, produce the dispositif (apparatus) of DC plans as a distributed form of agency that places the retirement investor at its centre. Behavioural economics is shown to continue the inherently incomplete remaking of retirement investors within DC plans, necessarily precarious financial subjects who face the highly uncertain prospect that returns on investment after fees will be sufficient to meet their expectations of security in old age.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Langley & Adam Leaver, 2012. "Remaking Retirement Investors," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 473-488, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jculte:v:5:y:2012:i:4:p:473-488
    DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2012.691893
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. George A. Akerlof, 2009. "How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1175-1175.
    2. Clark, Gordon L. & Munnell, Alicia H. & Orszag, J. Michael (ed.), 2006. "The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199272464.
    3. Clark, Gordon L. & Strauss, Kendra & Knox-Hayes, Janelle, 2012. "Saving for Retirement: Intention, Context, and Behavior," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199600854.
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    1. Wolf, Marcus, 2018. "Ain't misbehaving: Behavioral economics and the making of financial literacy," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 19(2), pages 10-18.
    2. Natacha Aveline-Dubach, 2022. "Financializing nursing homes? The uneven development of health care REITs in France, the United Kingdom and Japan [Financiariser les maisons de retraite médicalisées ? Le développement inégal des f," Post-Print halshs-03549729, HAL.
    3. Adriana M Soaita & Beverley A Searle, 2016. "Debt amnesia: Homeowners’ discourses on the financial costs and gains of homebuying," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(6), pages 1087-1106, June.
    4. Ariane Hillig, 2019. "Everyday financialization: The case of UK households," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(7), pages 1460-1478, October.

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