Can governments increase private savings by taxing savings up front instead of in retirement? Roth 401(k) contributions …

-cost intervention that substantially simplifies the retirement savings plan participation decision. Individuals received an opportunity … to enroll in a retirement savings plan at a pre-selected contribution rate and asset allocation, allowing them to … increase contribution rates among employees who are already participating in a savings plan …

fraction that enroll by 28 percentage points relative to a standard opt-in enrollment procedure, producing a savings … strong propensity to procrastinate and savings preferences that are highly heterogeneous. Naive beliefs about future time …

We assess the impact of 401(k) plan design on four different 401(k) savings outcomes: participation in the 401(k) plan … have an important effect on all of these savings outcomes. This suggests an important role for both employers in …

procrastinate. We develop a theory of optimal defaults based on these considerations. We find that it is sometimes optimal to set … extreme defaults, which are far away from the mean optimal savings rate. A default that is far away from a consumer's optimal … savings rate may make that consumer better off since such a bad' default will lead procrastinating consumers to more quickly …

created when the U.S. Army began automatically enrolling newly hired civilian employees into the Thrift Savings Plan. Four …

savings during their working years. For every $1 that flows into 401(k)s and similar accounts, between 30¢ and 40¢ leaks out … with helping households accumulate liquid savings that can be deployed when urgent pre-retirement needs arise …. Automatically enrolling workers into an employer-sponsored "rainy-day" or "emergency" savings account--terms that we use …

shifted towards defined contribution (DC) plans as their primary savings plan, and fiscal pressures are likely to generate … retirement in other accounts. There is also substantial heterogeneity across jurisdictions in the savings generated in primary DC … employer match. We conclude by applying lessons from savings behavior in private sector savings plans to the design of public …

Bernanke (2005) hypothesized that a "global savings glut" was causing large trade imbalances. However, we show that the … global savings rates did not show a robust upward trend during the relevant period. Moreover, if there had been a global … savings glut there should have been a large investment boom in the countries that imported capital. Instead, those countries …

This paper summarizes the empirical evidence on how defaults impact retirement savings outcomes. After outlining the … defaults impact retirement savings outcomes at all stages of the savings lifecycle, including savings plan participation …, savings rates, asset allocation, and post-retirement savings distributions. The paper then discusses why defaults have such a …