We assess the impact on savings behavior of several different 401(k) plan features, including automatic enrollment … education. We also present new survey evidence on individual savings adequacy. Many of our conclusions are based on an analysis … of micro-level administrative data on the 401(k) savings behavior of employees in several large corporations that …

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 …

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 … companies. Our work suggests that optimal defaults are likely to be at one of three savings rates: the minimum savings rate (i …

401(k) participation rates, savings behavior, and asset accumulation. We find that although employees can opt out of the … 401(k) plan, few choose to do so. As a result, automatic enrollment has a dramatic impact on retirement savings behavior …: 401(k) participation rates at all three firms exceed 85%, but participants tend to anchor at a low default savings rate …

: the initial fraction of savings allocated to company stock, the changes in this fraction, and the reallocations of …