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What the research says

What published research says about envelope budgeting, mental accounting, and why paying with cash feels different. Sources are linked so you can check them.

29 pages

The Pain of Paying: What Research Says About Cash vs. Cards Behavioral research on the pain of paying: why handing over cash feels costlier than tapping a card, what s... The Cashless Effect: What the Meta-Analytic Evidence Actually Shows A 2024 Journal of Retailing meta-analysis of 71 papers found a small but real cashless effect. What it meas... Mental Accounting: The Research Behind Why Budgets Work at All Thaler's mental accounting explains why people treat identical dollars differently. The original research, ... Labeling Money: The Evidence That Earmarking Changes Spending Economics assumes every dollar is interchangeable. Controlled experiments say otherwise: attaching a label ... What Happens When You Set a Budget Per Category Research on mental budgeting finds category budgets do constrain spending, sometimes to the point of underc... Partitioning: The Research on Splitting Resources Into Smaller Units Experiments with cookies, chocolates, and cash coupons show partitioning a resource into smaller units slow... The Denomination Effect: One Big Bill vs. Twenty Small Ones Research finds people are less likely to spend one large bill than the same sum in small ones, and pick lar... Commitment Devices: What Field Experiments Found About Saving Randomized field experiments in the Philippines and Kenya found restricting access to savings raised balanc... How Many Savings Goals Should You Set? What Research Suggests Studies find a single savings goal can beat multiple goals, and that specific difficult goals beat 'do your... Sinking Funds and the Research on Exceptional Expenses Research shows people budget ordinary spending well but badly underestimate exceptional expenses, treating ... Emergency Funds: The Data on Cash Buffers and Financial Resilience Federal Reserve and JPMorganChase Institute data on emergency savings: who could cover $400, and why dedica... Why Your Budget Estimate Is Almost Always Too Low Research finds savings goals bias spending predictions downward, expense growth is under-weighted versus in... Couples and Money: Research on Conflict, Joint Accounts, and Secrets Studies find spenders and savers tend to marry each other, that money conflict predicts lower marital well-... Does Financial Education Change Behavior? What a Meta-Analysis Found A meta-analysis of 201 studies found financial education explains about 0.1% of variance in behavior. Struc... Scarcity and Money: What the Research Says About Attention Research in Science finds scarcity shifts attention, deepening focus on urgent problems while neglecting ot... Deferred Payment and Spending: What the Evidence Shows Research on buy now pay later and payment depreciation shows that separating payment from consumption chang... Present bias and hyperbolic discounting: what the research actually shows What economists mean by present bias and quasi-hyperbolic discounting, what the gym-membership field study ... Default effects: what happens when the preset option decides for you Madrian and Shea found 401(k) participation of 37% versus 86% under automatic enrollment, with most auto-en... The paycheck cycle: why spending jumps on payday even when payday is predictable Research on payday spending: total spending rose about 70% above its daily average the day income arrived, ... The fresh start effect: temporal landmarks and why they help you begin Dai, Milkman and Riis found searches for diet, gym visits and goal commitments rose after temporal landmark... The Goal Gradient Effect, and Why Savings Goals Should Be Small Research on the goal gradient effect: people work harder as a reward gets closer, and even cosmetic progres... Loss Aversion and Why a Funded Envelope Feels Different What loss aversion research shows: a field experiment where loss-framed pay worked, another where it backfi... Does Budgeting Actually Work? The Honest Answer Research shows budgets reliably shift what you buy and reliably start out too optimistic. Here is what the ... Why People Do Not Cancel Subscriptions, According to Card Data Economists found cancellations spike when a payment card is replaced and renewal requires an active choice.... Anchoring, and Why You Should Set Your Number First Anchoring research: a random wheel moved UN estimates by 20 points, Social Security digits moved bids, and ... Lifestyle Creep: What the Research on Social Comparison Shows Studies using rising top incomes, a randomized Dutch lottery, and neighboring bankruptcies find that other ... What Research Says About How People Spend a Tax Refund Framing the same money as a bonus rather than a rebate changed how much got spent. What surveys and spendin... How Accurate Is Your Spending Memory? What Measurement Studies Show A randomized survey experiment found recall modules measured lower consumption than a personal diary. What ... Joint or Separate Bank Accounts? What the Research Actually Found A two-year randomized study assigned newlywed couples to joint or separate accounts. What it found about re...

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