ESRC Collaborative PhD studentship

Posted on 12 February 2011

An ESRC PhD studentship on employee share ownership plans and financial behaviour is available from Autumn 2011.

Image showing the logo of ESRC

Financial decision-making by employees

ESRC Collaborative Studentship  (in collaboration with Yorkshire Building Society).

Supervised by Professor Andrew Pendleton (University of York Management School) and Professor Andrew Robinson (Leeds University Management School)

The primary aim of this three year PhD studentship is to investigate financial behaviour and decision-making by participants in Save As You Earn employee share option plans.  The project will investigate the choices made by employee participants in these plans, and the influences upon them.  The studentship is based in the University of York Management School, with the lead supervision provided by Professor Andrew Pendleton.  The second supervisor is Professor Andrew Robinson (Leeds University Management School).  Both supervisors are experts on employee share ownership plans, and have written widely on the topic.  The student will work closely with Yorkshire Building Society, a market leader in employee share plan administration.  The student will benefit from a month-long internship in YBS Headquarters in Bradford, and will collect data in conjunction with YBS. 

The contexts for the research include government policy to encourage share ownership, concerns about debt and inadequate personal savings, rising concern about low levels of financial literacy and education, and mounting academic interest in personal financial choices and behaviour.  The behavioural economics literature has identified several influences on financial behaviour, including ‘familiarity’, ‘inertia’, and ‘implicit investment advice’, but as yet the evidence base is very limited.  The project is designed to collect substantial empirical evidence on an important area of personal financial behaviour.

More specifically, a key objective is to identify patterns of employee decision-making and their determinants at the maturity of SAYE savings plans.  Do employee participants exercise the options and hold the shares or do they take the cash from the savings contract?  If they retain the shares, are the shares part of a balanced portfolio of savings? Or do employees concentrate their ‘eggs in one basket’ (as happened in Enron in the USA)?  If they take cash, is this invested in other savings/investment vehicles or used for current consumption?  The project will investigate how these choices are framed and influenced by social, demographic, and cognitive factors.  A key issue, given current debates about financial capability and literacy is whether employees make well-informed and sensible decisions?  

It is intended that the student will

  1. Undertake a systematic review of relevant literatures in Management, Social Policy, Occupational Psychology, Labour Economics, and Behavioural Economics on employee share ownership, savings behaviour, and financial literacy.
  2. Conduct a research project to investigate personal financial choices by employee participants in SAYE.
  3. Report the findings of the research in a PhD thesis and a shorter report for Yorkshire Building Society

The successful applicant will have a Masters degree with a substantial research training component.  It is likely their Masters will be in either Management, Accounting and Finance, Occupational Psychology, or Economics, though other subjects will be considered.  The student will have good people skills and will be able to work cooperatively in a research team. 

Further details of this studentship and application process are available HERE (PDF , 93kb) .  Applicants should apply online by 1 June 2011.