Time: 13:00-15:00 (UK Time), Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Presenter: Prof. Robert Lensink, University of Groningen
Chair: Prof. Victor Murinde, SOAS University of London
Online venue: Click here to join the seminar on Microsoft Teams (For any inquiry about how to join the online seminar, please contact Dr Meng Xie: xm1@soas.ac.uk)
Abstract
Using administrative data on the savings behaviour of 31,246 South Africans at the onset of COVID, this experimental study demonstrates how reminders can decrease savings in a crisis. Building on an attention-based model for the effect of reminders, we show how if individuals have forgotten prior savings, a savings reminder can increase dis-saving when received at a time when those savings may be needed. While this may still be utility enhancing, this study demonstrates that focusing on an instrumental variable like savings, we can miss the full potential impact of an attention-enhancing technology like reminders.
Presenter
Professor Robert Lensink (orcid.org/0000-0001-6448-5164) is a development economist, with specific research interests covering Gender Studies, Impact Analyses, Microfinance, and Rural Development. He is Professor of Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), University of Groningen (UG), and a “Professor Extraordinary” at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He is currently the vice-dean research at FEB, UG. Robert has a wide international network. He is External Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Finance, SOAS University of London, Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Research in Microfinance, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Resource Person for the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), full member of the European Development Research Network, and a member of the steering committee of NWO/WOTRO. Robert has published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Economics journals like American Economic review, Economic Journal, and Journal of Public Economics, Psychology Journals, like British Journal of Social Psychology and Frontiers of Psychology, and multidisciplinary journals like World Development. He has authored 4 books, edited 4 books, and published more than 30 book chapters (see https://www.rug.nl/staff/b.w.lensink/).