Why We Procrastinate
Research findings in experimental psychology and economics confirm that individuals frequently experience difficulty in following through with plans or intentions. How many New Year’s resolutions are actually carried out? Studying the economic implications of self-control problems and time-inconsistent preferences are at the centre of Scott Findley’s research, with a particular focus on life-cycle saving outcomes and labour supply decisions.
While at CESifo in October and November, Mr Findley will focus his research efforts on a new project that quantitatively examines the effectiveness of Save More Tomorrow (SMarT) plans in helping myopic households prepare for retirement. He will give a series of CES lectures on “Discounting, Self-Control Problems, Myopia and Time-Inconsistent Preferences”, with a specific application to saving for retirement.
Scott Findley is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Utah State University. Previously, he served on the faculties at Illinois State University and the University of New Mexico. He earned an MA in Political Science and a separate MA in Economics, both from Utah State University, in 2003 and 2004 respectively. In 2007, he received his PhD in Economics from Colorado State University, where his doctoral studies examined the effectiveness of public pension programmes in counteracting impulsivity and insufficient saving for retirement.
In 2008, Mr Findley was a recipient of the Young Economists Award of the International Institute of Public Finance, which recognised his work on optimal social security design in the presence of household short-sightedness. His research has been published in journals such as Economics Letters, Journal of Economic Psychology, International Tax and Public Finance, Public Finance Review and the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance. Since 2012, he has served as a research fellow of Netspar (Network for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement). He is also the director of the annual summer workshop of QSPS (Quantitative Society for Pensions and Saving), which assembles leading experts to present and discuss new research in the fields of quantitative macroeconomics, behavioural economics and pension economics.