Leonore Riitsalu

Leonore Riitsalu is a Research Fellow in Behavioural Policy at the University of Tartu's Faculty of Social Sciences, specifically at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, where she has been working since January 2022 (with current appointment through 2025). She also serves as a board member at Nügila OÜ (since 2021) and previously held positions as a guest lecturer at Estonian Business School and as an Assistant of Sociology at the University of Tartu.

Dr. Riitsalu earned her PhD in Management from Estonian Business School in 2019 with her dissertation 'Books and Biases - the Explanation for Bounded Rationality in Managing Personal Finances,' supervised by Katri Kerem. She previously completed her Master's Degree in Consumer Behaviour in Money Matters at the same institution in 2013. Her educational background also includes a BBA from Estonian Business School, an Erasmus exchange at Strathclyde University, and secondary education at Tallinn Secondary Science School.

Her research focuses on financial well-being, behavioral policy, behavioral economics, economic psychology, financial literacy, and nudging. Her work examines how psychological factors influence financial decision-making, with particular attention to pension literacy, consumer credit behavior, and the relationship between self-control, future time perspective, and financial well-being. She investigates how financial well-being changes across the lifespan and differs across cultural contexts.

Her publication record shows a consistent focus on empirical studies of financial decision-making, with recent work emphasizing longitudinal assessments of financial well-being across Europe, the impact of behavioral interventions on retirement decisions, and cross-cultural comparisons of financial literacy. Her research combines experimental methods with large-scale survey data to develop evidence-based policy recommendations.

Dr. Riitsalu actively supervises doctoral students, currently guiding Pirjo Turk's research on 'Applying behavioural insights to decrease the digital data waste' and Kristiina Vain's work on 'The relationship between well-being and financial well-being in Central and Eastern Europe and Estonia.' She has secured multiple research grants from institutions including the European Social Survey, Erste Foundation, Ministry of Social Affairs, and Ministry of Finance.

She leads significant research projects including the Estonian Center of Excellence of Well-Being Sciences (2024-2030), Longitudinal Financial Well-being Assessment in Turbulent Times, and a Human-centred approach for increasing financial well-being of individuals and societies. Her work bridges academic research with practical policy applications through collaborations with governmental bodies and financial institutions.