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The Effect of the Employer Match and Defaults on Federal Workers’ Savings Behavior in the Thrift Savings Plan: Working Paper 2019-06

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  • Justin Falk
  • Nadia Karamcheva

Abstract

Policymakers are weighing options that would change the retirement system for federal workers by shifting more of their deferred compensation from the defined benefit plan toward the defined contribution plan, called the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). We use administrative longitudinal data on federal workers’ demographics, compensation, and TSP behavior to estimate the effects of an employer match and plan default options on workers’ TSP savings behavior and the cost of employer contributions. We rely primarily on two sources of exogenous variation stemming from policy changes

Suggested Citation

  • Justin Falk & Nadia Karamcheva, 2019. "The Effect of the Employer Match and Defaults on Federal Workers’ Savings Behavior in the Thrift Savings Plan: Working Paper 2019-06," Working Papers 55447, Congressional Budget Office.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbo:wpaper:55447
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Derby, Elena & Mackie, Kathleen & Mortenson, Jacob, 2023. "Worker and spousal responses to automatic enrollment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E27 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions

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