tailieunhanh - Behaviorally Informed Financial Services Regulation

Given the random nature of future events on financial markets, the field of stochastics (prob- ability theory, statistics and the theory of stochastic processes) obviously plays an important role in quantitative risk management. In addition, techniques from convex analysis and opti- mization and numerical methods are frequently being used. In fact, part of the challenge in quantitative risk management stems from the fact that techniques from several existing quanti- tative disciplines are drawn together. The ideal skill-set of a quantitative risk manager includes concepts and techniques from such fields as mathematical finance and stochastic process theory, statistics, actuarial mathematics, econometrics and financial economics, combined of course with non-mathematical. | OCTOBER 2008 Behaviorally Informed Financial Services Regulation MICHAEL S. BARR SENDHIL MULLAINATHAN and ELDAR SHAFIR prepared for the asset building program New America Foundation D @ 2008 New America Foundation This report carries a Creative Commons license which permits noncommercial re-use of New America content when proper attribution is provided. This means you are free to copy display and distribute New America s work or include our content in derivative works under the following conditions Attribution. You must clearly attribute the work to the New America Foundation and provide a link back to . Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes without explicit prior permission from New America. Share Alike. If you alter transform or build upon this work you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. For the full legal code of this Creative Commons license please visit . If you have any questions about citing or reusing New America content please contact us. Abstract Financial services decisions can have enormous consequences for household well-being. Households need a range of financial services to conduct basic transactions such as receiving their income storing it and paying bills to save for emergency needs and long-term goals to access credit and to insure against life s key risks. But the financial services system is exceedingly complicated and often not well-designed to optimize household behavior. In response to the complexity of our financial system there has been a long-running debate about the appropriate role and form of regulation. Regulation is largely stuck in two competing models disclosure and usury or product restrictions. This paper explores a different approach based on insights from behavioral economics on the one hand and an understanding of industrial organization on the other. At the core of the analysis is the interaction between individual .