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What You Don?t Know Can?t Help You: Pension Knowledge and Retirement Decision Making

Author

Listed:
  • Ann Huff Stevens
  • Sewin Chan

    (Department of Economics, University of California Davis)

Abstract

This paper provides an answer to an important empirical puzzle in the retirementliterature: while most people know little about their own pension plans, retirement behavior isstrongly affected by pension incentives. We combine administrative and self-reported pensiondata to measure the retirement response to actual and perceived financial incentives. Whilevirtually all recent empirical work has relied on administrative- or employer-reported data, wedocument an important role for self-reported pension data in determining retirement behavior.Well-informed individuals are five times more responsive to pension incentives than the average.In contrast, ill-informed individuals respond to their own misperceptions of the incentives ratherthan being unresponsive to any measured incentives.

Suggested Citation

  • Ann Huff Stevens & Sewin Chan, 2005. "What You Don?t Know Can?t Help You: Pension Knowledge and Retirement Decision Making," Working Papers 20, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:cda:wpaper:20
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    File URL: https://repec.dss.ucdavis.edu/files/aCkmHZ2WyZ3p6W2ahFLF7vdh/05-18.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Courtney Coile & Jonathan Gruber, 2001. "Social Security Incentives for Retirement," NBER Chapters, in: Themes in the Economics of Aging, pages 311-354, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Chan, Sewin & Stevens, Ann Huff, 2004. "Do changes in pension incentives affect retirement? A longitudinal study of subjective retirement expectations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1307-1333, July.
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    7. James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian & Andrew Metrick, 2001. "Defined Contribution Pensions: Plan Rules, Participant Decisions, and the Path of Least Resistance," NBER Working Papers 8655, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. David A. Wise, 1992. "Topics in the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise92-1, March.
    9. Robin L. Lumsdaine & James H. Stock & David A. Wise, 1992. "Three Models of Retirement: Computational Complexity versus Predictive Validity," NBER Chapters, in: Topics in the Economics of Aging, pages 21-60, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alan L. Gustman & Thomas Steinmeier & Nahid Tabatabai, 2007. "Imperfect Knowledge of Pension Plan Type," NBER Working Papers 13379, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    pension plans; retirement behavior;

    JEL classification:

    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

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