Employer matching of employee 401(k) contributions can provide a powerful incentive to save for retirement and is a key component in pension-plan design in the United States. Using detailed administrative contribution, earnings, and pension-plan data from the Health and Retirement Study, this...

Recent evidence shows that homeownership rates among young households have declined substantially since the mid-1980s. Although late household formation and the increasing user cost of housing are cited as contributing factors, aggregate data indicate that first-time home buyers are relying more...

Employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs) are designed to promote employee stock ownership broadly within the firm and provide another tax-deferred vehicle for individual capital accumulation in addition to traditional pensions, 401(k)s, and stock options. We outline the individual and corporate tax...

This paper examines the effects of intergenerational transfers on saving behavior by examining private wealth transfers targeted toward first-time home purchases. The study of transfer behavior in the housing market is advantageous for a number of reasons: the down payment requirement associated...

This paper exploits the significant recent variation in U.S. house prices to empirically examine the effect on housing equity constraints and nominal loss aversion on household mobility. The analysis uses unique, detailed data from 1985-1996 on household characteristics, mobility, and wealth...

We use panel data from W-2 records for households in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the responsiveness of 401(k) saving to taxation, employer matching, and lifecycle factors. The limit on the tax deductibility of IRA contributions enacted in the Tax Reform Act of 1986 appears...

We evaluate the first controlled field experiment on Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Including their own contributions and matching fund, treatment group members in the Tulsa, Oklahoma program could accumulate $6,750 for home purchase or $4,500 for other qualified uses. Almost all...

This paper examines the impact of the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act of 2000, which abolished the Social Security retirement earnings test for those aged 65-69, on the labor supply of older men using data from the 1996-2004 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Based on...

Employer matching of employee 401(k) contributions can provide a powerful incentive to save for retirement and is a key component in pension-plan design in the United States. Using detailed administrative contribution, earnings, and pension-plan data from the Health and Retirement Study, this...