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Personalized Digital Information and Tax-favoured Retirement Savings: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Administrative Data

Author

Listed:
  • Claudio Daminato

    (CER–ETH – Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

  • Massimo Filippini

    (CER–ETH – Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich and Department of Economics, University of Lugano, Switzerland)

  • Fabio Haufler

    (CER–ETH – Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of making personalized digital information available through a pension app on contributions to tax-favored retirement accounts. Using Swiss administrative pension fund data, we document limited take-up of fiscal incentives for retirement savings. Exploiting the staggered introduction of the pension app across occupational pension funds, we show that its availability increases individual tax-favored contributions. Men and higher-income earners are more likely to access the digital environment and respond to its introduction. These findings suggest that providing access to a pension app reduces information and transaction costs and facilitates the take-up of financial incentives for retirement saving.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudio Daminato & Massimo Filippini & Fabio Haufler, 2020. "Personalized Digital Information and Tax-favoured Retirement Savings: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Administrative Data," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 20/347, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:eth:wpswif:20-347
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Rob Bauer & Inka Eberhardt & Paul Smeets, 2022. "A Fistful of Dollars: Financial Incentives, Peer Information, and Retirement Savings," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(6), pages 2981-3020.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Defined contribution plans; Fiscal incentives; Pension app; Savings;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

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