Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-m9pkr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T21:12:40.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Getting Citizens to Save: Media Influence on Incentive-Based Policies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2015

ANDREA LAWLOR
ANDREA LAWLOR*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, King's University College, Western University, 266 Epworth Ave., London, Canada email: andrea.lawlor@uwo.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Governments often introduce financial incentives to citizens in order to encourage ‘personally responsible’ behaviour. Examples of these types of incentives include tax-deferral or tax-free incentives around retirement savings. These types of incentives are shown to matter to investment strategies in the aggregate, but we still lack a full explanation as to how individuals respond to these types of incentives, and what role media play in advertising these incentives. This paper illustrates the potentially vital role that media play in enhancing contributions to one incentive-based policy, the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) in Canada (2000–2013), using aggregate contribution data, media data, as well as individual-level survey data from the Canadian Financial Capability Survey. Results show that media advertising of the programme influences contribution outcomes and, while media may not outweigh lifecycle effects such as proximity to retirement, it is nonetheless an essential – and overlooked – motivator for contributions to late-life savings.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 201 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barber, B. M. and Odean, T. (2008), ‘All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors’, Review of Financial Studies, 21: 2, 785–818.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, B. M. and Odean, T. (2001), ‘Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116: 1, 261–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenthal-Barby, J.S. and Burroughs, Hadley. (2012), ‘Seeking Better Health Care Outcomes: The Ethics of Using the ‘Nudge’.’, The American Journal of Bioethics, 12: 2, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chevreau, J. (2002), ‘Prudent Course Is to Tend to RRSP’, National Post, 15 January 2002.Google Scholar
Clark, G. (2000), ‘Pension Fund Capitalism’, OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199240487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, G., Thrift, N. and Tickell, A. (2004), ‘Performing Finance: The Industry, the Media and Its Image’, Review of International Political Economy, 11: 2, 289–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dwyer, P. (2002). ‘Making Sense of Social Citizenship: Some User Views on Welfare Rights and Responsibilities’, Critical Social Policy, 22: 2, 273–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyck, A. and Zingales, L. (2003), ‘The Media and Asset Prices.’ Working Paper, available at http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty_pages/romain.wacziarg/mediapapers/DyckZingales.pdf.Google Scholar
Engelberg, J. E. and Parsons, C. A. (2011), ‘The Causal Impact of Media in Financial Markets’, The Journal of Finance, 66: 1, 67–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etzioni, A. (1996), The New Golden Rule, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (2003), ‘The Subject and Power’, in Rabinow, P. and Rose, N. (eds), The Essential Foucault: Selections from Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984, New York: New Press, 126–144.Google Scholar
Frenken, H. (1990), ‘Rrsps: Tax-Assisted Retirement Savings’, Perspectives on Labour and Income, 2: 4.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (2000), The Third Way and Its Critics, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Graber, D. (2003), ‘The Media and Democracy: Beyond Myths and Stereotypes’, Annual Review of Political Science, 6: 1, 139–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, C. (2010), ‘Accounting and the Construction of the Retired Person’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 35: 1, 23–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenfield, C. and Williams, P. (2001), ‘Finance Advertising and Media Rhetoric’, Southern Review: Communication, Politics & Culture, 34: 2, 44–66.Google Scholar
Greenfield, C. and Williams, P. (2007), ‘Financialization, Finance Rationality and the Role of Media in Australia’, Media, Culture & Society, 29: 3, 415–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallin, D. C. and Mancini, P. (2004), Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hester, J. B. and Gibson, R. (2003), ‘The Economy and Second-Level Agenda Setting: A Time-Series Analysis of Economic News and Public Opinion About the Economy’, Journalism and Mass Communication, 890: 1, 73–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilgert, M. A., Hogarth, J. M. and Beverly, S. G. (2003), ‘Household Financial Management: The Connection between Knowledge and Behavior’, Federal Reserve Bulletin, 89: 7, 309–322.Google Scholar
Hoggett, P. (2001), ‘Agency, Rationality and Social Policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 30: 1, 37–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hood, C. C. (1983), The Tools of Government, London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howlett, M. (2013), Canadian Public Policy: Selected Studies in Process and Style, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Howlett, M., Ramesh, M. and Perl, A. (1995), Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems, Toronto: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hyde, M. and Dixon, J. (2009), ‘Individual and Collective Responsibility: Mandated Private Pensions in a Comparative Perspective’, Journal of Comparative Social Welfare, 25: 2, 119–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
John, P., Cotterill, S., Moseley, A., Richardson, L., Smith, G., Stoker, G. and Wales, C. (2011), Nudge, Nudge, Think, Think, New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kindleburger, C. (1989), Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, New York: Basic Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R. and Millar, J. (1995), ‘Do-It-Yourself Social Policy’, Social Policy and Administration, 29: 4, 303–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Little, B. (2008), Fixing the Future: How Canada's Usually Fractious Governments Worked Together to Rescue the Canada Pension Plan, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lusardi, A. and Mitchell, O. S. (2008), ‘Planning and Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?’, National Bureau of Economic Research, No. w13750.Google Scholar
Marron, K. (2002), ‘Self-Directed Investors Seeking More Advice with Rockier Markets, Do-It-Yourselfers Are Increasingly Turning to Pros for Help’, Globe and Mail, 24 January 2002.Google Scholar
Miller, P., and O’Leary, T. (1987), ‘Accounting and the Construction of the Governable Person’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12: 3, 235–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullainathan, S. and Shleifer, A. (2002), ‘Media Bias’, National Bureau of Economic Research, No. w9295.Google Scholar
Norris, P., Kern, M. and Just, M. (2013), Framing Terrorism: The News Media, the Government and the Public, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rice, J. J. and Prince, M. J. (2013), Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Rimke, H. M. (2000), ‘Governing Citizens through Self-Help Literature’, Cultural Studies, 14: 1, 61–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ring, P. J. (2005), ‘Security in Pension Provision: A Critical Analysis of UK Government Policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 34: 3, 343–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, N. and Miller, P. (1992). ‘Political Power Beyond the State’, British Journal of Sociology, 43: 2, 172–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowlingson, K. (2002), ‘Private Pension Planning: The Rhetoric of Responsibility, the Reality of Insecurity’, Journal of Social Policy, 31: 4, 623–642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowlingson, K. and Connor, S. (2011), ‘The ‘Deserving’ Rich? Inequality, Morality and Social Policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 40: 3, 437–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, A. and Ingram, H. (1990), ‘Behavioral Assumptions of Policy Tools’, The Journal of Politics, 52: 02, 510–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selinger, E. and Whyte, K. (2011), ‘Is There a Right Way to Nudge? The Practice and Ethics of Choice Architecture’, Sociology Compass, 5: 10, 923–935.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiller, R. (2000), Irrational Exuberance, New York: Broadway Books.Google Scholar
Smith, M. J., Marsh, D. and Richards, D. (1993), ‘Central Government Departments and the Policy Process’, Public Administration, 71: 4, 567–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soroka, S. N. (2012), ‘The Gatekeeping Function: Distributions of Information in Media and the Real World’, The Journal of Politics, 74: 02, 514–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, D. (2002), Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making, New York: W.W. Morton.Google Scholar
Such, E. and Walker, R. (2005), ‘Young Citizens or Policy Objects? Children in the ‘Rights and Responsibilities’ Debate’, Journal of Social Policy, 34: 1, 39–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sunstein, C. R. (2014), Why Nudge? The Politics of Libertarian Paternalism, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Tetlock, P. C. (2007), ‘Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market’, The Journal of Finance, 62: 3, 1139–1168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thaler, R. H. and Sunstein, C. R. (2008), Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Verweij, M. and can den Hoven, M. (2012), ‘Nudges in Public Health: Paternalism Is Paramount’, The American Journal of Bioethics, 12: 2, 16–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vickerstaff, S. (2006), ‘I’d Rather Keep Running to the End and Then Jump Off the Cliff. Retirement Decisions: Who Decides?’, Journal of Social Policy, 35: 3, 455–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolley, F., Hui, T. S-W. and Vincent, C. (2013), ‘Are Women Empowered to Save?’, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 3: 7, 1249–1272.Google Scholar
Young, L. and Soroka, S. N. (2012), ‘Affective News: The Automated Coding of Sentiment in Political Texts’, Political Communication, 29: 2, 205–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar