Even though they have only existed since 1981, some analysts have concluded that 401(k) plans are a failure. For example, some argue that 401(k) plans are “coming up short” due to, among other factors, the low contribution rates of participants. A recent government report concluded that...

In this paper, we develop a measure of household resources that converts total financial and non-financial assets, plus annuity-like assets (mainly, Social Security and defined-benefit pensions) into an expected annual amount of wealth per person in retirement. We use this measure, which we call...

This paper establishes a causal relation between an individual's decision of whether to own stocks and average stock market participation decision of the individual's community. We instrument for the average ownership of an individual's community with lagged average ownership of the states in...