Benefiting from our biases: Inducing saving increases among Thai military officers

Most people believe saving is important, but few succeed in saving enough to maintain their desired lifestyles in retirement or achieve other goals for the future. In this study, we conduct a field experiment using concepts from the well-regarded Save More Tomorrow™ program to enhance saving among military officers in the Royal Thai Army. Subjects in a treatment group are automatically enrolled into the program with the option of withdrawing and deductions for saving are taken only from future salary increases rather than from total future income. The vast majority of subjects in the treatment group (98 percent) remained in the program after two years (2016-2018) and four pay raises. Their saving rates relative to income increased by one percentage point versus a decline of nearly half a percentage point for a control group whose saving amount remained fixed against rising income. Our study provides evidence that insights from behavioral economics hold wide applicability across cultural and economic settings and can serve as valuable aids to policy design.