This course examines saving and spending decisions by individuals and households over the lifecycle in the context of national retirement savings and incomes policies. We examine the economic and financial risks facing both individuals and product providers, as well as behavioural explanations for deviations from economic rationality and the lifecycle model.

Topics covered include: a taxonomy of the lifecycle; lifecycle theories of consumption and saving; investment strategy, human capital and the retirement decision: risks facing individual retirees and providers of retirement income products (investment risk, longevity risk, interest rate risk, inflation risk, replacement risk); market failure in the retirement benefit market; behavioural explanations for non-rational behaviour including myopia, procrastination, mental accounting, complexity, framing, loss aversion etc.