Deferring Income in Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans: The Dynamics of Participant Contributions

Abstract

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, part of a consortium that includes parallel centers at the University of Michigan and the National Bureau of Economic Research, was established in 1998 through a grant from the Social Security Administration. The goals of the Center are to promote research on retirement issues, to transmit new findings to the policy community and the public, to help train new scholars, and to broaden access to valuable data sources. Through these initiatives, the Center hopes to forge a strong link between the academic and policy communities around an issue of critical importance to the nation's future.

Retirement Saving Choices: Review of the Literature and Policy Implications

“…The variables that affect contribution to saving are similar to the decision to save: contributions increase with salary, education, age and job tenure (Basset et al 1998;Papke 2003a;Smith et al 2004;Huberman et al 2007) and this evidence holds for self-employed workers (Devaney et al 1998). Age is consistently associated with higher contributions (Devaney and Zhang 2001;Wang and Gutter 2005).…”

“…Despite the fact that men tended to trade more than women, this difference is small. Questioning this evidence, there is support to contribution rates fluctuating significantly over time (Smith et al 2004). These authors studied taxdeferred plans between 1990 and 2001and showed that more than half of the employees exhibited noteworthy differences in contribution rates throughout time.…”

Effect of work-life balance on performance of money deposit banks in south-south Nigeria

“…Ideally, alternative work arrangements can decrease facility and employee related costs and improve employee recruitment, retention, and morale (Konrad & Mangel, 2000). According to Smith et al (2004) the benefits of alternative work arrangement are: improved morale and reduced stress by giving staff more options to balance work and family demands; increased customer service by expanding department hours; retention of valued staff; increased staff productivity and better planning for staff absences. Typical alternative work arrangements include compressed workweeks, telecommuting, flexi-time, job sharing and part-time work.…”

Do Households Increase Their Savings When the Kids Leave Home?

“…Our paper builds on a literature that investigates the frequency and determinants of changes in 401(k) elective deferrals. Using SIPP data linked to W-2 tax records, Smith, Johnson, and Muller (2004) found that contributions fluctuated considerably over time. They found some evidence that contribution rates responded to life events, but the magnitude of the responses was generally small.…”