This paper examines the role of 40 1(k) plans in retirement saving by U.S. households. It charts the rapid growth of these plans during the 1980s; more than 15 million workers now participate in 401(k)s. Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation are used to calculate 401(k)...

The paper considers the effect on widows' poverty of changes in Social Security survivorship benefits, by a reduction in couples' benefits so that total Social Security cost is unchanged. A twenty percent increase in survivorship benefits, for example, would reduce the 1989 poverty rate of...

The vast majority of Individual Retirement Account contributions represent net new saving, based on evidence from the quarterly Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CES). The results are based on analysis of the relationship between IRA contributions and other financial asset saving. The data show...

People earn just enough to get by' is a phrase often used to explain the low personal saving rate in the United States. The implicit presumption is that households simply do not earn enough to pay for current needs' and to save. We show in this paper that at all levels of lifetime earnings there...

We verify that widows are much more likely than couples to be poor and that they make up a large proportion of the poor elderly; 80 percent are widows or other single individuals. Then we seek to explain why the single elderly are poor, with emphasis on widows. We do this by tracing back over...

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction / David A. Wise and Richard Woodbury -- 1. Trends in Pension Cash-Out at Job Change and the Effects on Long-Term Outcomes / Philip Armour, Michael D. Hurd, and Susann Rohwedder -- Comment: James M. Poterba -- 2. Liquidity in Retirement Savings...

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction - Courtney Coile, Kevin Milligan, and David A. Wise -- 1. Disability Insurance Incentives and the Retirement Decision: Evidence from the United States - Courtney Coile -- 2. Effect of Pensions and Disability Benefits on Retirement in the...