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The Effects of Tax-Based Saving Incentives On Saving and Wealth

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  • Eric M. Engen
  • William G. Gale
  • John Karl Scholz

Abstract

This paper evaluates research examining the effects of tax-based saving incentives on private and national saving. Several" factors make this an unusually difficult problem. First, households that participate in, or are eligible for, saving incentive plans have systematically stronger tastes for saving than other households. Second, the data indicate that households with saving incentives have taken on more debt than other households. Third, significant changes in the 1980s in financial markets, pensions, social security, and nonfinancial assets interacted with the expansion of saving incentives. Fourth, saving incentive accounts represent pre-tax balances, whereas conventional taxable accounts represent post-tax balances. Fifth, the fact that employer contributions to saving incentive plans are a part of total employee compensation is typically ignored. A major theme of this paper is that analyses that ignore these issues overstate the impact of saving incentives on saving. We show that accounting for these factors largely or completely eliminates the estimated positive impact of saving incentives on saving found in the literature. Thus, we conclude that little if any of the overall contributions to existing saving incentives have raised private or national saving. *Portions of this article were published in the JEP, 1996, under title of "The Illusory Effects of Saving Incentives on Saving."

Suggested Citation

  • Eric M. Engen & William G. Gale & John Karl Scholz, 1996. "The Effects of Tax-Based Saving Incentives On Saving and Wealth," NBER Working Papers 5759, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5759
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Monica Paiella & Andrea Tiseno, 2009. "Saving for retirement and retirement investment choices," Discussion Papers 1_2009, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    2. Samwick, Andrew A., 1998. "Discount rate heterogeneity and social security reform," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 117-146, October.
    3. Eric M. Engen & William G. Gale & John Karl Scholz, 1996. "The Illusory Effects of Saving Incentives on Saving," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 113-138, Fall.
    4. Engen, Eric M. & Gale, William G., 1996. "Tax-Preferred Assets and Debt, and the Tax Reform Act of 1986: Some Implications for Fundamental Tax Reform," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 49(3), pages 331-39, September.
    5. Eric M. Engen & William G. Gale, 2000. "The Effects of 401(k) Plans on Household Wealth: Differences Across Earnings Groups," NBER Working Papers 8032, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Bernheim, B. Douglas, 2002. "Taxation and saving," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 18, pages 1173-1249, Elsevier.
    7. Attanasio, Orazio P. & Paiella, Monica, 2001. "Households savings in the U.S.A," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 109-132, March.
    8. John, Susan St. & Willmore, Larry, 2001. "Two Legs are Better than Three: New Zealand as a Model for Old Age Pensions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(8), pages 1291-1305, August.
    9. David Wise, 1997. "Retirement against the demographic trend: More older people living longer, working less, and saving less?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(1), pages 83-95, February.
    10. Power, Laura & Rider, Mark, 2002. "The effect of tax-based savings incentives on the self-employed," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 33-52, July.
    11. Willmore, Larry, 2000. "Three Pillars of Pensions: Revised and Annotated," MPRA Paper 106796, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 29 Aug 2014.
    12. Engen, Eric M. & Gale, William G., 1996. "Tax-Preferred Assets and Debt, and the Tax Reform Act of 1986: Some Implications for Fundamental Tax Reform," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 49(3), pages 331-339, September.
    13. Eren, Okan & Genç İleri, Şerife, 2022. "Life cycle analysis of savings accounts with matching contributions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    14. Love, David, 2006. "Buffer stock saving in retirement accounts," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(7), pages 1473-1492, October.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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