Knowledge Sharing Session: Behavioural Insights

Event Recap

Friday, 14 June 2024 | Securities Commission Malaysia

The Institute for Capital Market Research Malaysia (ICMR) had the pleasure of hosting a knowledge-sharing session titled “Sharing Experiences with Behavioural Experiments”. This event brought together leading experts from Research For Impact (RFI) Singapore, the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) and ICMR – each sharing invaluable insights on leveraging evidence-based approaches and behavioural insights to formulate effective policy interventions.

Key Highlights

“The Role Of Social Experiments In Consumer Financial Policymaking”

Speaker: Dr Joanne Yoong, Research For Impact (RFI) & ICMR Research Fellow

Dr. Yoong emphasized why evidence-based policy is more necessary than ever before. She highlighted that social experiments are among the most robust methods for testing the real-world impact of policy interventions on consumer financial well-being.
Dr. Yoong’s insights underscored the critical role of behavioural experiments in informing and enhancing policy decisions, ultimately leading to more practical and impactful consumer finance policies.

“Effective Measures To Promote Retirement Savings Of The Thai Population”

Speaker: Warawich Potranandana, Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI)

Warawich presented key insights from two experimental studies on promoting retirement savings among the Thai population. The first year’s study identified six personas across the population and outlined 16 measures to promote saving behavior. The second year’s study then delved into the behavioral biases affecting their savings behaviour and TDRI then ran experiments to test which measures could effectively address these biases.
Through these studies, Warawich highlighted the importance of understanding both personas and behavioral biases to develop strategies that effectively promote financial planning and positively change saving behaviours

“Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) To Investigate The Effectiveness Of Financial Literacy Interventions”

Speaker: Nadhirah Ibrahim, Institute for Capital Market Research Malaysia (ICMR)

Nadhirah shared ICMR’s journey into behavioral research and presented key findings from ICMR’s first-ever RCT. She shared how well-designed financial education programs can significantly improve consumers’ financial well-being, confidence, and decision-making abilities.
She also highlighted that RCT showed that people had low retention of financial information, underscoring the strategic importance of microlearning (delivering short, continuous, and straightforward content) to ensure sustained financial knowledge among youth demographics like Millennials and Gen Z in Malaysia.