Event details

Joining the Center's Behavioral Policy Works in Process lunch series in March will be a team using behavioral science and computational modeling for analyzing the evidence and targeting interventions for financial wellness. On Thursday, March 27, director of behavioral science at Edward Jones, will introduce Steve Wendel, former Vice President at the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, who previously founded the behavioral science teams at Morningstar and HelloWallet, developing and field-testing hundreds of interventions to improve financial behavior. Now he is co-founder of sistemaFutura, which is developing a new synthesis of behavioral science and computational modeling to improve the financial wellness of Americans.

In this session, the duo will present FinSim, a financial simulation that models the life events and financial decision-making of American households, given the constraints and cognitive biases we all face. The simulation estimates how community-based initiatives, government policies and product offerings could affect people's financial wellbeing, and forecasts future outcomes up to twenty years: in order both inform policy and program design, and to target future behavioral interventions. As this is a true work in progress, the team will welcome thoughts on how this model might be enhanced and deployed for impact in a variety of domains.

All members of the Princeton community—undergraduates, graduate students, fellows, staff, and faculty—are invited. Lunch will be served at 12:30 with a 50 minute presentation beginning at 12:40 with time embedded for discussion. Please RSVP for lunch by March 12.