The eleventh annual TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security is awarded this year to Mark Aguiar, University of Rochester, and Erik Hurst, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business for their article titled “Consumption versus Expenditure” (Journal of Political Economy, October 2005). In this paper, the authors conduct a detailed analysis of food expenditures and food consumption in retirement to show that neither the quality nor the quantity of food intake deteriorates with retirement status. This research contradicts previous research documenting a “retirement consumption puzzle,” i.e., a dramatic decline in expenditures at the time of retirement for the average household, by focusing on actual measures of consumption as opposed to expenditure. The authors thus provide an improved methodology for analyzing the well-being of households as they transition into retirement.
Mark Aguiar is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester and Erik Hurst is Professor of Economics and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
2006 TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Certificate of Excellence Winners
A Certificate of Excellence is awarded to Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan and Wesley Yin for their article titled "Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence From a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines " (The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2006). In this paper the authors provide direct evidence for the need for specialized savings products in order to help poor individuals reach their savings goals and thus achieve lifelong financial security. Isolating the importance of self-control as a barrier to savings amongst the poor, a novel saving product was offered to a group of individuals by a Philippine bank. Individuals identified a saving target (either amount or date) and were given the option to “lock” their accumulations until reaching the target. Twenty-eight agreed to open such an account resulting in an 81% average increase in saving balances after one year.
Nava Ashraf is an Assistant Professor in the Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets Unit at Harvard Business School; Dean Karlan is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Yale University; and Wesley Yin is an Assistant Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
2006 TIAA-CREF Panel of Distinguished Judges
Nicholas C. Barberis, Ph.D.
Professor of Finance
Yale School of Management
Richard C. Green
Professor of Economics and Management
Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
Annamaria Lusardi, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Dartmouth College
Olivia S. Mitchell, Ph.D.
Professor of Insurance and Risk Management and Business and Public Policy
University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
Andrew Samwick, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Dartmouth College
