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CENIE (International Centre on Ageing), an entity promoted by the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, and the prominent behavioural economist, Shlomo Benartzi, will lead a new chapter of Conversations in Salamanca: understanding longevity, whose main objective is to know, understand and comprehend the phenomenon of long-lived societies from the point of view of leading personalities from the intellectual, scientific, economic and social world. This initiative is part of the New Long-Lived Societies Project, following the lines of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Interreg Programme, Spain-Portugal, (POCTEP), 2021-2027.
Previous chapters of Conversations in Salamanca have featured prominent figures such as Juan Carlos Izpisua, Spanish biochemist and pharmacist, specialist in the field of developmental biology; Pascal Bruckner, French philosopher, teacher, essayist and novelist; Tom Kirkwood, pioneering scientist in research into the complexity of the ageing process; and Aubrey de Grey, English scientist specialising in gerontology.
Behavioural economics in the service of financial health
Professor Benartzi will reflect on how behavioural economics helps in the resolution of the financial crisis that can arise after retirement (and improve financial well-being); the American economist, co-author of the book "Save More Tomorrow" with the Nobel Prize in Economics, Richard H. Thaler, will talk with the journalist Javier Ruiz, head of Economics at Cadena SER, about the alternatives and tools that exist, and that can be developed, to have good financial health and face the challenges that intergenerationality presents us with. All from the perspective of behavioural economics and cognitive biases.
During his talk, he will review his most recent research and publications, focusing his intervention on the need to guide people financially in a holistic way and the potential value of carrying out broader and more comprehensive financial advice that covers not only savings decisions, but also debt management and insurance.
"The results show that this type of advice is of enormous value, as it can add more than 2,472 basis points, or an increase in income of 7.5% for a typical household. More importantly, this type of advice can be especially valuable for those on lower incomes who have been neglected in the past," Benartzi said in his publication "The Value of Holistic Financial Advice".
According to the behavioural economist, holistic advice brings extraordinary value to people's financial health, even beyond purely financial issues.
Financial health course
Shlomo Benartzi was recently in Spain to the presentation of the main results of the research report 'Financial Health: Our Needs and the Future', a study led by CENIE in collaboration with Novaster.
On that occasion, he shared an interesting conversation with José Luis Escrivá, Spanish Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, at the headquarters of the Madrid College of Economists (CEMAD), where both addressed the issue of the present and future financial health of Spaniards. In this regard, he stressed that the main "incentives for healthy savings for retirement should be in line with the application of principles of behavioural economics, detecting the biases that we suffer as people and making saving easy".
During the event, the online course "Introduction to financial health" was presented, which aims to be a didactic approach to how we perceive our own financial health and how we can improve it. This course is available completely free of charge on the CENIE website.