dr. M. (Martijn) Keizer

Duurzaam Betaalgedrag (January 2022 - now).

The title of this project translates to 'Sustainable Payment Behavior'. This research collaboration with Syncasso Nederland BV, Hogeschool Utrecht, and Achmea aims to test an intervention focusing on sustainable changes in the payment behavior of indebted consumers. The first step in this project is to identify the potential of such an intervention by estimating which percentage of all indebted consumers have sufficient financial means to sustainably stay out of financial problems. To this end, CBS microdata and data provided by Syncasso and Achmea will be analyzed. The second step in this project consists of a series of interviews focusing on the main motives and barriers affecting consumer's ability to sustainable stay out of debt.

Speeding up payment behavior (February 2019 - now)

This collaboration with the Centraal Justitieel Incassobureau (CJIB), the governmental debt collection agency in the Netherlands, focuses on improving the effectiveness of the communication strategy used by CJIB to motivate its clients to pay timely and in full. This project consists of a series of experimental studies.

Lezen ≠ Begrijpen (June 2017 - June 2019).

The title of this project translates to 'to read is to understand'. This research project, which was a collaboration between the University of Groningen, Syncasso BV, Kredietbank Nederland and Stichting Lezen & Schrijven, focused on the relationship between deficits in literacy skills and financial problems among consumers. The study combined quantitative and qualitative methods to show that 50,3 percent of a random sample of 600 clients of a Dutch debt-relief organization had limited literacy skills. In collaboration with clients and debt-relief organizations, a number of interventions to better enable consumers with limited literacy skills to deal with their financial problems were tested. The final report on this project is availabe here (in Dutch only)

Afgelost = Opgelost (August 2015 - August 2017)

The title of this project translates to 'to pay off is to solve'. On average, Dutch consumers who seek debt relieve help have been in debt for approximately 5 years and owe over €40.000 to their creditors. This study focused on the reasons why consumers allow their financial problems to spiral out of control to this extent before seeking help. In-depth interviews with 113 indebted consumers were conducted to answer this question. The research report, which also contains recommendations to remedy this problem, is available here (in Dutch only).

Effective communication (March 2013 - March 2016)

In collaboration with a debt collection agency, I ran a series of field experiments to test the effectiveness of various adjustments to their communications with indebted consumers. We applied various persuasion techniques to increase  consumer response rates. A short research video about this project can be found here.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of debt relief efforts by Gemeentelijke Kredietbank Groningen (February 2016 - September 2017)

Evaluation research into the effectiviness of an intervention to increase financial literacy among adolescents in the city of Groningen.

The role of normative considerations as predictors of pro-environmental behavior (PhD research; thesis defended in 2014)

PhD research focusing on the role of normative considerations as predictors of pro-environmental behavior. Four studies showed that the predictive power or personal norms regarding the environment is dependent on situational factors promoting or inhibiting the behavior in question. The full PhD thesis can be found under 'Research'.