We have built a database that records the savings and investment decisions of individual employees who have access to employer-sponsored 40 l(k) plans. Our database contains repeated annual cross-sectional observations on over 1 million employees at 28 large corporations. For eight of these firms, we also have detailed longitudinal data on every saving and asset allocation transaction conducted by individual employees at these firms--approximately 170 million transactions over the past nine years. Using these data, we plan to undertake a wide range of studies that analyze the determinants of individuals' 401(k) savings and investment choices. Our studies consider the impact of economic incentives like employer matching and of psychological factors like the framing of saving and investment choices, the impact of defaults, and the causes of procrastination. Our research also evaluates the effect of institutions that force employees to think about their retirement saving decisions. We examine a wide range of 401(k) outcomes, including participation, savings rates, trading frequency, asset allocation, loans, and cash distributions. Most of our research identifies the effect of institutional regimes by comparing participant behavior at a firm before and after a rule change in the 401(k) plan. Our research will identify the determinants of saving and asset allocation choices in 401(k) plans and may be relevant for related retirement savings plans, like individual Social Security accounts.
| Choi, James J; Haisley, Emily; Kurkoski, Jennifer et al. (2017) Small Cues Change Savings Choices. J Econ Behav Organ 142:378-395 |
| Beshears, John; Choi, James J; Laibson, David et al. (2017) Does front-loading taxation increase savings? Evidence from Roth 401(k) introductions. J Public Econ 151:84-95 |
| Beshears, John; Choi, James J; Laibson, David et al. (2017) Does Aggregated Returns Disclosure Increase Portfolio Risk Taking? Rev Financ Stud 30:1971-2005 |
| Chabris, Christopher F; Lee, James J; Cesarini, David et al. (2015) The Fourth Law of Behavior Genetics. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 24:304-312 |
| Beshears, John; Choi, James J; Hurwitz, Joshua et al. (2015) Liquidity in Retirement Savings Systems: An International Comparison. Am Econ Rev 105:420-425 |
| Beshears, John; Choi, James J; Laibson, David et al. (2015) The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions. J Finance 70:1161-120 |
| Ericson, Keith M Marzilli; White, John Myles; Laibson, David et al. (2015) Money earlier or later? Simple heuristics explain intertemporal choices better than delay discounting does. Psychol Sci 26:826-33 |
| Laibson, David (2015) Why don't present-biased agents make commitments? Am Econ Rev 105:267-72 |
| Beshears, John; Choi, James J; Laibson, David et al. (2014) What Makes Annuitization More Appealing? J Public Econ 116:2-16 |
| Madrian, Brigitte C (2014) APPLYING INSIGHTS FROM BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS TO POLICY DESIGN. Annu Rev Econom 6:663-688 |
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