Some retirement plans allow the participant to choose how funds are invested. Having to direct investments may provide the participant with financial education. This paper finds that households covered by pension plans in which the employee chooses investments are significantly more apt to hold...

Because employer-provided pensions represent an important source of income during retirement, accurate information on pension coverage would seem to be crucial for making sound decisions on retirement timing, saving, and portfolio allocation. However, previous research suggests that workers'...

The literature on asset accumulation by households draws a sharp distinction between "short-run" precautionary motives to buffer annual consumption from annual labor income shocks, and "long-run" life cycle considerations under labor income certainty. However, empirical estimates of the...

We will examine the size of the Feldstein and Horioka (1980) "saving-retention coefficient" in a setting of near perfect capital mobility, Japanese regions. We first find that on total regional saving and investment rate data, inclusive of regional government saving and investment, the estimate...

Japanese government planners use the average age of the manufacturing capital stock as one measure of their country's international "competitiveness." Compared to the U.S., the data show that Japanese depreciation rates are higher and that capital stocks are younger. ; In much of economic...