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Early Withdrawals From Retirement Accounts During The Great Recession

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Argento
  • Victoria L. Bryant
  • John Sabelhaus

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="coep12064-abs-0001"> Early withdrawals from retirement accounts are a double-edged sword, because withdrawals reduce retirement resources, but they also allow individuals to smooth consumption when they experience demographic and economic shocks. Using tax data, we show that preretirement withdrawals increased between 2004 and 2010, especially after 2007, but early withdrawal rates are substantial (relative to new contributions) in all those years. Early withdrawal events are strongly correlated with shocks to income and marital status, and lower-income taxpayers are more likely to experience the types of shocks associated with early withdrawals and more likely to have a taxable withdrawal when they experience a given shock. (JEL G23, H24, H31)

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Argento & Victoria L. Bryant & John Sabelhaus, 2015. "Early Withdrawals From Retirement Accounts During The Great Recession," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(1), pages 1-16, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:33:y:2015:i:1:p:1-16
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/coep.2015.33.issue-1
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Wang-Ly, Nathan & Newell, Ben R., 2022. "Allowing early access to retirement savings: Lessons from Australia," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 716-733.
    2. Hampson, Daniel P. & Gong, Shiyang & Xie, Yi, 2021. "How consumer confidence affects price conscious behavior: The roles of financial vulnerability and locus of control," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 693-704.
    3. John Beshears & James J. Choi & J. Mark Iwry & David C. John & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2020. "Building Emergency Savings through Employer-Sponsored Rainy-Day Savings Accounts," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 43-90.
    4. López, Fernando & Rosas, Guillermo, 2022. "COVID-19 and attitudes towards early withdrawal of pension funds: The role of trust and political ideology," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    5. Teresa Ghilarducci & Siavash Radpour & Anthony Webb, 2018. "New Evidence on the Effect of Economic Shocks on Retirement Plan Withdrawals," SCEPA working paper series. 2018-03, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    6. Miguel Lorca, 2021. "Effects of COVID‐19 early release of pension funds: The case of Chile," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(4), pages 903-936, December.
    7. Beshears, John & Choi, James J. & Harris, Christopher & Laibson, David & Madrian, Brigitte C. & Sakong, Jung, 2020. "Which early withdrawal penalty attracts the most deposits to a commitment savings account?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    8. Goda, Gopi Shah & Jones, Damon & Ramnath, Shanthi, 2022. "Temporary and permanent effects of withdrawal penalties on retirement savings accounts✩," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    9. Axelle Arquié, 2023. "Fire Sales and Bank Runs in the Presence of a Saving Allocation by Depositors," Working Papers 2023-09, CEPII research center.
    10. Mahmoudi, Samir Elsadek, 2023. "Late-career unemployment shocks, pension outcomes and unemployment insurance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    11. Timothy (Jun) Lu & Olivia S. Mitchell & Stephen P. Utkus & Jean A. Young, 2017. "Borrowing From the Future? 401(K) Plan Loans and Loan Defaults," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 70(1), pages 77-110, March.
    12. John Beshears & James J. Choi & Joshua Hurwitz & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2015. "Liquidity in Retirement Savings Systems: An International Comparison," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 420-425, May.
    13. Sumit Agarwal & Jessica Pan & Wenlan Qian, 2020. "Age of Decision: Pension Savings Withdrawal and Consumption and Debt Response," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 43-69, January.
    14. Bateman, Hazel & Dobrescu, Loretti I. & Liu, Junhao & Newell, Ben R. & Thorp, Susan, 2023. "Determinants of early-access to retirement savings: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    15. Alison Preston, 2022. "Financial Fragility, Financial Literacy and the Early Withdrawal of Retirement Savings During COVID-19," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 22-12, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    16. Davide Melcangi & Vincent Sterk, 2020. "Stock Market Participation, Inequality, and Monetary Policy," Staff Reports 932, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    17. Lisa J. Dettling & Sebastian Devlin-Foltz & Jacob Krimmel & Sarah Pack & Jeffrey P. Thompson, 2015. "Comparing Micro and Macro Sources for Household Accounts in the United States: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-86, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    18. Seonghoon Kim & Kanghyock Koh, 2020. "Does Early Access To Pension Wealth Improve Health?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(4), pages 1783-1794, October.
    19. Alison Preston, 2022. "Financial fragility, financial literacy and the early withdrawal of retirement savings during COVID-19," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 25(2), pages 127-147.
    20. Elena Derby & Lucas Goodman & Kathleen Mackie & Jacob Mortenson, 2022. "Changes in Retirement Savings During the COVID Pandemic," Papers 2204.12359, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2022.
    21. Yanwen Wang & Muxin Zhai & John G. Lynch, 2023. "Cashing Out Retirement Savings at Job Separation," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(4), pages 679-703, July.
    22. Mehmet E. Yaya, 2018. "Great Recession and Income Inequality: a State-level Analysis," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 112-125, September.
    23. J. Birkenmaier & Q. Fu, 2019. "Does U.S. Household Financial Access Mediate the Relationship Between a Large Income Drop and Credit Record?," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 267-283, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

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