Pension contract design and free choice: Theory and practice

This paper by Henk Nijboer (Ministry of Finance and Leiden University) and Bart Boon (Ministry of Finance) discusses the insights from the field of behavioral economics with a focus on the implications for the design of pension schemes. The first part of the paper provides an international overview of the most important results from behavioral economics literature. Next, it introduces a systematic approach to think about how to take account of these deviations from the standard framework of fully rational consumers maximizing utility. The second part of the report discusses the use of behavioral instruments in the Dutch pension system. In particular, the possibilities and rationale to increase the use of behavioral instruments is discussed.