Seminario CEDE - Oscar Becerra

The literature that studies individual’s retirement planning highlights the importance of providing information that enable agents to make better choices. Using a program that mandates individuals to take free financial advice before changing their pension plan, we study the role of providing financial information on retirement planning. We find that the introduction of the information program changed individuals’ retirement planning decisions in the short run, as a sizable fraction of individuals decided not to change their pension plan. However, the role of information was rather moderate, as most of the reduction was related to the additional cost of getting the advice. Conditional on participating in the program, receiving information led individuals to take better one-time decisions, but it did not change their behavior over time.