Heuristics and Biases in Retirement Savings Behavior

摘要

All around the world, in both the public and private sectors, retirement plans are shifting away from "defined benefit" plans toward "denned contribution" plans.1 Poterba, Venti, and Wise (2006), for example, followed the cohort of Americans who were 45 years old in 1984 and report a decrease in denned benefit plan coverage from about 40 percent to 20 percent and a corresponding increase in denned contribution plan coverage from about 5 percent to more than 30 percent. Defined contribution plans have many attractive features for participants, such as portability and flexibility, but these attractions come with an increased responsibility to choose wisely. The plans also provide economists with an attractive domain in which to study saving behavior.