In October 2012, the United Kingdom adopted nation-wide automatic enrolment into workplace pension schemes. Automatic enrolment on the current scale is a major undertaking but it is also an untested policy and it is important that we understand how individuals are adapting to these radical changes in pension provision. There is currently a lack of research into the dynamic decision-making processes that lie behind some individuals' deviation from workplace pension scheme default settings. This exploratory study investigates the importance of financial planning, social relations, and the role of the employer to default adherence and deviation. The embedded case study comprises qualitative interviews with 25 middle-income employees of a large UK utility company. Participants were selected on the basis of socio-economic similarity but had variable behavioural responses to the default settings of their workplace pension scheme. The study uncovered different motives underpinning individuals' reaction to membership defaults, contribution defaults, and investment fund defaults. Continued membership following automatic enrolment was driven by social pressures. Subsequent to enrolment, individuals tried to achieve a balance between current expenditure and saving for retirement. Property ownership and mortgage debt redemption were prioritised over additional pension scheme investment. The life-stage of the individual influenced how they reacted to the contribution default settings - default adherence appeared to be linked to unsettled personal lives and career insecurity. Motives for increasing contributions were household formation, parental ageing, and relationship breakdown. Saving strategies were influenced by parental accumulation of retirement assets and parental financial literacy. Employer-matching contributions were implicated in participants' willingness to increase pension contributions beyond the minimum default; investment in share option schemes was offered as justification for limiting contributions to the maximum match. Employer endorsement effects, driven by trust in the employer's intentions, were strongly implicated in fund default adherence and in investment diversification strategies: participants pointed to the employer's promotion of the pension scheme and employer-provided financial seminars. Advice from older colleagues was also cited as influential in directing retirement savings behaviour. The research concludes that the employment context is crucial to understanding how middle-income employees react to the default settings in their workplace pension scheme.

Submitted by Luis Felipe Lopes Martins (lopesmartins.luis@gmail.com) on 2016-01-29T21:26:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Regulação da Prev. Compl. Fechada sob a Perspeciva da Econ.pdf: 1574022 bytes, checksum: 838f7519247a9eb766f1fd72df335260 (MD5) / Rejected by BRUNA BARROS (bruna.barros@fgv.br), reason: Favor submeter novamente, pois faltou a ficha catalográfica. on 2016-02-11T17:32:48Z (GMT) / Submitted by Luis Felipe Lopes Martins (lopesmartins.luis@gmail.com) on 2016-02-11T17:50:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Regulação da Prev. Compl. Fechada sob a Perspeciva da Econ. Comportamental - Luis Lopes Martins.pdf: 1600447 bytes, checksum: bda49ea57d8454add667b598daa8a61b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by BRUNA BARROS (bruna.barros@fgv.br) on 2016-02-16T17:20:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Regulação da Prev. Compl. Fechada sob a Perspeciva da Econ. Comportamental - Luis Lopes Martins.pdf: 1600447 bytes, checksum: bda49ea57d8454add667b598daa8a61b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Almeida (maria.socorro@fgv.br) on 2016-02-16T18:58:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Regulação da Prev. Compl. Fechada sob a Perspeciva da Econ. Comportamental - Luis Lopes Martins.pdf: 1600447 bytes, checksum: bda49ea57d8454add667b598daa8a61b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-16T18:59:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Regulação da Prev. Compl. Fechada sob a Perspeciva da Econ. Comportamental - Luis Lopes Martins.pdf: 1600447 bytes, checksum: bda49ea57d8454add667b598daa8a61b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-15 / The present dissertation looks into the use of measures as the automatic enrolment in the pension funds regulation from the perspective of the loosening of the concept of rationality, based on the Law and Behavional Economics. The work is initiated by the historical evolution of Brazilian pension funds’ regulations. It analyzes the systemic impacts created by changes to the pension pillars, particularly to the first one (public pension). In view of these changes and the increasing relevance of the second pillar (occupational pension) to ensure the welfare, this dissertation aims to analyze the possibility of occurrence of cognitive biases in complementary pensions-related decisions. Those cognitive biases can lead individuals to choose options that do not maximize their welfare, for reasons such as inertia, procrastination and optimism, unlike the predicted by the rationality assumption of the neoclassical economic theory. The outcomes analyzed indicate the necessity of regulatory measures to mitigate these cognitive biases, which should be mainly the adoption of a choice arquitecture that can induce the welfare maximization, without limit the individual freedom of choice. Those measures, however, specially the automatic enrollment, are intended to alleviate the cognitive biases, being censurable its adoption in pension plans with predominance of other reasons to the low levels of enrollment, as distrust in the fund administration. Moreover, is needed to respect certain criteria in the automatic enrollment implementation, in order to ensure that this instrument is used only when cognitive biases that reduce the welfare are observed, as well that the option that people are being nudged to is a gainful option, at least most of the times. At end, it is verified the legality of these measures using the standard of proportionality, which allows to identify the limits to the regulatory intensity. / A presente dissertação investiga a utilização de medidas como a adesão automática pela regulação da previdência complementar fechada a partir da flexibilização do conceito de racionalidade, tendo como base a Análise Econômica e Comportamental do Direito. Inicia-se o trabalho pela evolução histórica da regulação da previdência no Brasil, avaliando os impactos sistêmicos das alterações ocorridas no primeiro pilar previdenciário (regimes básicos). Em virtude dessas alterações e do crescimento da relevância do segundo pilar de previdência social (Previdência Complementar Fechada) para a manutenção do bem-estar, analisa-se a possibilidade de ocorrência de vieses cognitivos que implicam desvios de racionalidade dos indivíduos nas decisões relativas à previdência complementar. Esses vieses cognitivos podem fazer com que indivíduos escolham alternativas que não maximizam seu bem-estar, por razões como inércia, procrastinação e superotimismo, ao contrário do que aponta o pressuposto de racionalidade da Economia Neoclássica. Os resultados analisados conduzem à necessidade de adoção de medidas regulatórias capazes de mitigar esses desvios de racionalidade, na forma de adoção de arquitetura de escolhas que induzam à maximização do bem-estar individual, sem limitar a liberdade individual dos envolvidos. Essas medidas, entretanto, especialmente a adesão automática aos planos de benefícios, destinam-se à mitigação de vieses cognitivos, sendo criticável sua adoção em planos de previdência onde observa-se predominância de outras razões para baixos níveis de adesão, como desconfiança em relação à gestão do plano. Ademais, faz-se necessário respeitar certos critérios para sua implementação, a fim de garantir que esse instrumento somente seja utilizado quando se observar vieses cognitivos que prejudiquem significativamente o bem-estar, bem como que a opção à qual os indivíduos estão sendo induzidos é vantajosa, ao menos na grande maioria das vezes. Ao final, verifica-se a juridicidade dessas medidas, à luz da proporcionalidade, norma que permite identificar os limites para a intensidade regulatória.