IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/nbr/nberch/12435.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

The Availability and Utilization of 401(k) Loans

In: Investigations in the Economics of Aging

Author

Listed:
  • John Beshears
  • James J. Choi
  • David Laibson
  • Brigitte C. Madrian

Abstract

We document the loan provisions in 401(k) savings plans and how participants use 401(k) loans. Although only about 22% of savings plan participants who are allowed to borrow from their 401(k) have such a loan at any given point in time, almost half had used a 401(k) loan over a longer, seven-year horizon. The probability of having a loan follows a hump-shaped pattern with respect to age, job tenure, account balance, and salary, but conditional on having a loan, loan size as a fraction of 401(k) balances declines with respect to these variables. Participants are less likely to use loans in plans that charge a higher interest rate, and loans are smaller when plans allow fewer simultaneously outstanding loans, impose a shorter maximum possible loan duration, or charge a lower interest rate.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2011. "The Availability and Utilization of 401(k) Loans," NBER Chapters, in: Investigations in the Economics of Aging, pages 145-172, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:12435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c12435.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Timothy Jun Lu & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2010. "Borrowing from Yourself: The Determinants of 401(k) Loan Patterns," Working Papers wp221, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    2. Li, Geng & Smith, Paul A., 2010. "401(K) LOANS and HOUSEHOLD BALANCE SHEETS," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(3), pages 479-508, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bronshtein, Gila & Scott, Jason & Shoven, John B. & Slavov, Sita Nataraj, 2020. "Leaving big money on the table: Arbitrage opportunities in delaying social security," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 261-272.
    2. Tullio Jappelli & Mario Padula, 2016. "The Consumption and Wealth Effects of an Unanticipated Change in Lifetime Resources," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(5), pages 1458-1471, May.
    3. Geng Li, 2012. "Gamblers as personal finance activists," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2012-18, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Brennan, Linda & Zevallos, Zuleyka & Binney, Wayne, 2011. "Vulnerable consumers and debt: Can social marketing assist?," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 203-211.
    5. Thomas Bridges & Frank Stafford, 2012. "At the Corner of Main and Wall Street: Family Pension Responses to Liquidity Change and Perceived Returns," Working Papers wp282, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

    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:nbr:nberch:12435. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.