Arbeitspapier

Perceived Precautionary Savings Motives: Evidence from FinTech

We study the spending response of first-time borrowers to an overdraft facility and elicit their preferences, beliefs, and motives through a FinTech application. Users increase their spending permanently, lower their savings rate, and reallocate spending from non-discretionary to discretionary goods. Interestingly, liquid users react more than others but do not tap into negative deposits. The credit line acts as a form of insurance. These results are not fully consistent with models of financial constraints, buffer stock models, or present-bias preferences. We label this channel perceived precautionary savings motives: Liquid users behave as if they faced strong precautionary savings motives even though no observables, including elicited preferences and beliefs, suggest they should.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 8123

Classification
Wirtschaft
Household Saving; Personal Finance
Macroeconomics: Consumption; Saving; Wealth
Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
Banks; Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
Subject
household finance
consumption
behavioral finance

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
D'Acunto, Francesco
Rauter, Thomas
Scheuch, Christoph
Weber, Michael
Weber, Michael
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
(where)
Munich
(when)
2020

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET

Data provider

This object is provided by:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.

Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • D'Acunto, Francesco
  • Rauter, Thomas
  • Scheuch, Christoph
  • Weber, Michael
  • Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)

Time of origin

  • 2020

Other Objects (12)