Volume 13, No. 2, December 2014

 

Subadditivity in Resource Allocation: An Experimental Study of
the Hong Kong Mandatory Retirement Protection Scheme
   
Ricky S. Wong

Department of Supply Chain Management, Hang Seng Management College, Hong Kong

 
Wai Hung Wong
Hang Seng Management College, Hong Kong
Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of subadditivity on how individuals allocate their savings to the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme. Findings indicated that when an MPF category is unpacked into its subcategories, individuals tend to allocate a higher percentage of their savings to that fund and that the perceived readiness of fund comprehension mediated the relationship between unpacking and people’s allocation. One major contribution is that decision makers’ choices of MPFs depend on how the information is presented to them.

Key words: subadditivity; resource allocation; mandatory provident fund;  mandatory retirement protection         
JEL classification: C91; D81; I31

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