Retirement Contribution Rate Nudges and Plan Participation: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Details

Author(s):
  • Jacob Goldin
  • Tatiana Homonoff
  • Will Tucker-Ray
Publish Date:
May 31, 2017
Publication Title:
American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings
Format:
Journal Article Volume 107 Issue 5
Citation(s):
  • Jacob Goldin, Tatiana Homonoff, & William Tucker, Retirement Contribution Rate Nudges and Plan Participation: Evidence from a Field Experiment, 107 American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 456 (2017).
Related Organization(s):

Abstract

Simple interventions like changing the default or sending a short message can induce individuals to save more for retirement. However, messages that emphasize high savings rates may increase the amount that savings plan participants save while reducing the total number of plan participants. We study this possibility in the context of a field experiment designed to increase retirement savings by US military service-members. We find that service-members who received a message emphasizing a low contribution rate were more likely to participate in a savings plan than were service-members whose message emphasized a high contribution rate, or no rate at all.