Choukhmane, Taha
[Author]
;
Colmenares, Jorge
[Other];
O'Dea, Cormac
[Other];
Rothbaum, Jonathan L.
[Other];
Schmidt, Lawrence D.W
[Other]National Bureau of Economic Research
Who Benefits from Retirement Saving Incentives in the U.S.? Evidence on Gaps in Retirement Wealth Accumulation by Race and Parental Income
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Description:
U.S. employers and the federal government devote over 1.5% of GDP annually toward promoting defined contribution (DC) retirement saving. Using a new employer-employee linked dataset covering millions of Americans, we show that this system of saving incentives benefits White workers and those with richer parents more than their similar-income coworkers who are Black or Hispanic or from lower-income families. Breaking the link between contribution choices and saving subsidies--through revenue-neutral reforms--could close the gaps in DC wealth between White and Black or Hispanic workers and between those with the richest and those with the poorest parents by approximately one-third