The Roybal Center for Behavior Change in Health and Saving

The Roybal Center for Behavior Change in Health and Saving is one of thirteen centers authorized by Congress in 1993 and named for former House Select Committee on Aging Chair Edward R. Roybal. The goal of the centers is to move promising social and behavioral research findings out of the laboratory and into programs and practices that will improve the lives of older people and help society adapt to an aging population. The centers focus on a range of projects, including maintaining mobility and physical function, enhancing driving performance, understanding financial and medical decision making, and sharpening cognitive function.

Have you ever thought,
I should really get my flu shot, or I should start saving for retirement, but haven't gotten around to it? Many Americans have the best intentions, but have a hard time translating them into action. At the Roybal Center for Behavior Change in Health and Saving, we figure out ways to make it easy for people to do what they think they should.

OVERVIEW
The Roybal Center for Behavior Change in Health and Saving at the National Bureau of Economic Research was funded by the National Institute on Aging in 2009. Since its founding, the Center has worked to translate basic research findings in the economics of aging into practical applications that improve health and economic well-being. Many of the Center’s projects translate successful retirement saving interventions to the domain of health behavior. Through experimental pilot projects, the Center seeks to develop new health interventions that improve health outcomes and reduce costs. The experimental interventions supported by the Center study a wide range of scalable, cost-effective channels that influence behavior including defaults, automaticity, peer information, financial incentives, deadlines, pre-commitment strategies, simplified choice sets, education, communication, and advice. The Center funds a variety of projects in both health and saving. More information about the Center's projects can be found here.

MISSION
To improve health and economic well-being through simple and easy to implement interventions.

The research falls into six program areas:

The Changing Demographic Environment

The Changing Private Resources that Support Older People

The Changing Needs of Older Households

Research on interactions between Social Security and other public policies

Social Security reform and system attributes

Social Security, labor market behavior and macroeconomic outcomes