Do online pension dashboards affect pension knowledge and expectations? Evidence from a randomized survey experiment

Abstract

We test the effectiveness of an online interactive pension dashboard in improving pension funds participants’ ability to make adequate pension decisions in terms of pension preparation, knowledge, self-efficacy, expectations, and intention-to-act. In a randomized survey experiment, treated participants of two pension funds receive an encouragement to visit an online pension dashboard. Treated individuals have more pension knowledge and an increased self-efficacy in the pension domain, especially so for females. The dashboard does not have a significant impact on the pension preparation or the errors in forecasts of pension income nor does it impact the willingness to act if there is a need to do so.