Playing with your Future: Who Gambles in Defined-Contribution Pension Plans?

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the relationship between volatility in the stock market and the trading behaviour of employees in defined-contribution (DC) pension schemes. We found that 10% of our sample exhibited compulsive gambling behaviour; in other words, they both ‘fed’ and ‘fed-off’ volatility, and that their individual attributes such as gender, experience in the firm and age clearly influenced their trading behaviour. Our findings shed new light on the behavioural drivers of financial decision-making in a saving-for-retirement setting, and on the crucial importance of the need for the financial industry and policy makers to address the growing onus put on ill-equipped non-professional financial decision makers.