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on Nudge and Boosting |
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Issue of 2026–02–23
two papers chosen by Marco Novarese, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Mathias Celis; Kris Boudt; Mona Bassleer; Wouter Duyck; Stijn Schelfhout; Nicolas Dirix (-) |
| Abstract: | In an online vignette study involving 15, 593 participants, we investigated the effectiveness of various nudging interventions, including defaults, pre-commitment strategies, evaluative labels, social norms, and their combinations, on annuity uptake decisions within the occupational pension scheme. Participants decided how to allocate their pension funds between a lump sum and an annuity using a continuous decision slider, offering a more flexible alternative to traditional binary choices. Our findings revealed a small but statistically significant effect of pre-commitment strategies on annuitization. However, contrary to expectations, all other interventions (defaults, social norms, evaluative labels, and their combinations) showed no significant effect on annuity uptake. Notably, we observed a consistent decision pattern across all conditions. On average, across all conditions, 51.2% of participants opted for less than 5% annuity uptake, 34.5% chose a mix, with a significant peak of 13% at exactly 50% annuity uptake, and 14.3% selected more than 95% annuity. This clustering around round numbers suggests a "round number bias" influenced by the 0–100% continuous scale used, where participants gravitated towards cognitively straightforward, salient options. These findings align with recent debates questioning the general effectiveness of nudging interventions, particularly in complex financial decisions, often involving deeply rooted preferences. The present study highlights the limitations of nudges in shifting behavior as our study also underscores the need for a better understanding of the driving forces behind annuity uptake rationales to effectively influence annuity uptake decisions. |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:26/1134 |
| By: | Rehmatulla, Nishatabbas; Iyer, Poorvi; Nameghi, Fatemeh Habibi |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the measures available to improve operational energy efficiency from the perspective of onboard crew, the barriers associated with implementing those measures and how crew behaviour can be nudged using incentives. A total of 25 semi-structured interviews and subsequent surveys with 42 onboard crew were carried out to gather qualitative information on two main domains: operational efficiency and incentive schemes. In-depth thematic analysis of interviews showed the central and recurring themes such as stakeholder hierarchy, autonomy and accountability, temporal restrictions, profitability and type of charter. Due to the heterogeneity in interview responses on the topic of incentives, online surveys were conducted. The findings of the study show that whilst speed reduction was seen as the single most important measure to optimise, it was also the most difficult to implement in practice due to several barriers. These include contractual obligations, a complex web of accountability and perverse incentives to increase speed. Other measures such as trim–draft optimisation and auxiliary engine load optimisation have smaller efficiency gains but were found to have more potential for increasing implementation through behavioural changes and encouraged through incentives. Both monetary and non-monetary incentives were perceived to be important and going beyond the status quo of incentivising captains so that rewards are shared equitably amongst the crew. Whilst not generalisable, preliminary findings suggest that there is room to consider alternatives to the current approaches on incentives, which do not take advantage of the importance of acknowledgment and recognition, as well as fostering positive interpersonal relationships. |
| Keywords: | shipping; energy efficiency; incentives; nudging; seafarer; behaviour; onboard; operations |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2026–02–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:137283 |