IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v87y2003i2p253-281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How do contribution limits affect contributions to tax-preferred savings accounts?

Author

Listed:
  • Milligan, Kevin

Abstract

Contributions to tax-preferred savings accounts are typically constrained by a contribution limit. These limits influence contributions not just in periods in which they bind, but in other periods as well. I develop a simple life-cycle model in which consumers exhibit "use-it-or-lose-it" contribution behaviour. This connects current contributions to future contribution limits, which leads to the result that an increase in contribution limits can decrease contributions. Empirical evidence provides support for the model--larger future contribution room is associated with smaller contributions.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Milligan, Kevin, 2003. "How do contribution limits affect contributions to tax-preferred savings accounts?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 253-281, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:87:y:2003:i:2:p:253-281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047-2727(01)00136-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jagadeesh Gokhale & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Mark J. Warshawsky, 2001. "Life-cycle saving, limits on contributions to DC pension plans, and lifetime tax benefits," Working Papers (Old Series) 0102, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    2. Michael R. Veall, 2001. "Did tax flattening affect RRSP contributions?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 34(1), pages 120-131, February.
    3. Gale, William G & Scholz, John Karl, 1994. "IRAs and Household Saving," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1233-1260, December.
    4. David I. Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman, 1998. "Self-Control and Saving for Retirement," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 29(1), pages 91-196.
    5. Shoven, John B. & Sialm, Clemens, 2004. "Asset location in tax-deferred and conventional savings accounts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1-2), pages 23-38, January.
    6. James M. Poterba & Steven F. Venti, 1998. "Personal Retirement Saving Programs and Asset Accumulation: Reconciling the Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in the Economics of Aging, pages 23-124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. R. Glenn Hubbard & Jonathan S. Skinner, 1996. "Assessing the Effectiveness of Saving Incentives," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 73-90, Fall.
    8. Bernheim, B. Douglas, 2002. "Taxation and saving," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 18, pages 1173-1249, Elsevier.
    9. Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 1990. "Have IRAs Increased U. S. Saving?: Evidence from Consumer Expenditure Surveys," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(3), pages 661-698.
    10. Triest, Robert K., 1998. "Econometric Issues in Estimating the Behavioral Response to Taxation: A Nontechnical Introduction," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(4), pages 761-772, December.
    11. Triest, Robert K., 1998. "Econometric Issues in Estimating the Behavioral Response to Taxation: A Nontechnical Introduction," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 4), pages 761-72, December.
    12. Long, James E., 1990. "Marginal Tax Rates and IRA Contributions," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 43(2), pages 143-53, June.
    13. Jane G. Gravelle, 1991. "Do Individual Retirement Accounts Increase Savings?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 133-148, Spring.
    14. Burman, Leonard E. & Cordes, Joseph J. & Ozanne, Larry, 1990. "IRAs and National Savings," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 43(3), pages 259-283, September.
    15. David I. Laibson, 1996. "Hyperbolic Discount Functions, Undersaving, and Savings Policy," NBER Working Papers 5635, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Christopher Ragan, 1994. "Progressive Income Taxes and the Substitution Effect of RRSPs," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 27(1), pages 43-57, February.
    17. Long, James E., 1990. "Marginal Tax Rates and IRA Contributions," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 43(2), pages 143-153, June.
    18. Alan J. Auerbach & Joel Slemrod, 1997. "The Economic Effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 589-632, June.
    19. Akerlof, George A, 1991. "Procrastination and Obedience," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 1-19, May.
    20. Androkovich, Robert A. & Daly, Michael J. & Naqib, Fadle M., 1992. "The impact of a hybrid personal tax system on capital accumulation and economic welfare," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 801-813, May.
    21. Michael J. Daly, 1981. "The Role of Registered Retirement Savings Plans in a Life-Cycle Model," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 14(3), pages 409-421, August.
    22. David A. Wise, 1998. "Frontiers in the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise98-1.
    23. Burman, Leonard E. & Cordes, Joseph J. & Ozanne, Larry, 1990. "IRAs and National Savings," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 43(3), pages 259-83, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Todd Morris & Benoit Dostie, 2023. "Graying and staying on the job: The welfare implications of employment protection for older workers," Cahiers de recherche / Working Papers 15, Institut sur la retraite et l'épargne / Retirement and Savings Institute.
    2. Richard Disney & Carl Emmerson & Matthew Wakefield, 2008. "Pension Provision and Retirement Saving: Lessons from the United Kingdom," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 34(s1), pages 155-176, November.
    3. Rainer Niemann & Mariana Sailer, 2023. "Is analytical tax research alive and kicking? Insights from 2000 until 2022," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(6), pages 1149-1212, August.
    4. Hans Fehr & Fabian Kindermann, 2010. "Pension Funding and Individual Accounts in Economies with Life-cyclers and Myopes," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 56(3), pages 404-443, September.
    5. Adam M. Lavecchia, 2018. "Do "Catch-Up Limits" Raise Retirement Saving? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 71(1), pages 121-154, March.
    6. Rydqvist, Kristian & Schwartz, Steven T. & Spizman, Joshua D., 2014. "The tax benefit of income smoothing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 78-88.
    7. Rydqvist, Kristian & Spizman, Joshua & Schwartz, Steven, 2011. "The Tax Benefit of Income Smoothing," CEPR Discussion Papers 8425, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Rowena Crawford & Richard Disney & Carl Emmerson, 2012. "Do up-front tax incentives affect private pension saving in the United Kingdom?," IFS Working Papers W12/05, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Engelhardt, Gary V. & Madrian, Brigitte C., 2004. "Employee Stock Purchase Plans," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 57(2), pages 385-406, June.
    10. Richard Disney & Carl Emmerson & Matthew Wakefield, 2010. "Tax Reform and Retirement Saving Incentives: Take‐up of Stakeholder Pensions in the UK," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(306), pages 213-233, April.
    11. Steeve Marchand, 2018. "Who Benefits from Tax-Preferred Savings Accounts?," Cahiers de recherche 1812, Chaire de recherche Industrielle Alliance sur les enjeux économiques des changements démographiques.
    12. Chan, Marc K. & Morris, Todd & Polidano, Cain & Vu, Ha, 2022. "Income and saving responses to tax incentives for private retirement savings," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    13. Hans Fehr & Fabian Kindermann, 2010. "Pension Funding and Individual Accounts in Economies with Life-cyclers and Myopes," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 56(3), pages 404-443, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bernheim, B. Douglas, 2002. "Taxation and saving," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 18, pages 1173-1249, Elsevier.
    2. Eric M. Engen & William G. Gale & John Karl Scholz, 1996. "The Effects of Tax-Based Saving Incentives On Saving and Wealth," NBER Working Papers 5759, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. John B. Burbidge, 2004. "Tax‐deferred savings plans and interest deductibility," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 757-767, August.
    4. James M. Poterba & Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 1996. "How Retirement Saving Programs Increase Saving," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 91-112, Fall.
    5. Brigitte C. Madrian & Dennis F. Shea, 2001. "The Power of Suggestion: Inertia in 401(k) Participation and Savings Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(4), pages 1149-1187.
    6. James M. Poterba & Steven F. Venti, 1998. "Personal Retirement Saving Programs and Asset Accumulation: Reconciling the Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in the Economics of Aging, pages 23-124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Warren Hrung, 2002. "Income Uncertainty and IRAs," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 9(5), pages 591-599, September.
    8. Eric M. Engen & William G. Gale, 2000. "The Effects of 401(k) Plans on Household Wealth: Differences Across Earnings Groups," NBER Working Papers 8032, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jonathan Skinner, 1991. "Individual Retirement Accounts: A Review of the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 3938, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Frank Caliendo & W. Cris Lewis, 2004. "The Effect of the Current Ira Program on Federal Debt," Public Finance Review, , vol. 32(3), pages 331-351, May.
    11. Giuseppe Ruggieri & Maxime Fougère, 1997. "The effect of tax-based savings incentives on government revenue," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 143-159, May.
    12. Andersen, Henrik Yde, 2021. "Pension taxation, household debt and the real economy," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2021(1), pages 1-14.
    13. Love, David, 2006. "Buffer stock saving in retirement accounts," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(7), pages 1473-1492, October.
    14. William M. Gentry & Joseph Milano, 1998. "Taxes and Investment in Annuities," NBER Working Papers 6525, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Hrung, Warren B., 2001. "Information and IRA participation: the influence of tax preparers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 467-484, June.
    16. Gaobo Pang, "undated". "Tax-Deferred Savings and Early Retirement," Research Reports 3, Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
    17. Börsch-Supan, Axel, 2004. "Mind the gap : the effectiveness of incentives to boost retirement saving in Europe," Papers 07-27, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    18. Andersen, Henrik Yde, 2018. "Do tax incentives for saving in pension accounts cause debt accumulation? Evidence from Danish register data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 35-53.
    19. Orazio P. Attanasio & Thomas C. DeLeire, 1994. "IRAs and Household Saving Revisited: Some New Evidence," NBER Working Papers 4900, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Ludmila Fadejeva & Olegs Tkacevs, 2021. "Are Tax-Favoured Savings Plans Effective in Raising Private Savings?," Discussion Papers 2021/01, Latvijas Banka.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:87:y:2003:i:2:p:253-281. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505578 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.