Determinants of Saving in 401(k) Plans -- Continuation

描述(由申请人提供)：我们建议的研究将检查个人水平储蓄率、资产配置和资产积累的决定因素，重点是401(K)计划。我们将研究401(K)计划设计、经济激励(如雇主匹配缴费)、信息呈现方式和跨期偏好对储蓄结果的影响。我们的研究还将检验行为经济学文献中的许多假说。我们数据中的几个模式表明，心理因素在决定投资和储蓄选择方面发挥着重要作用。这些因素包括拖延、现状偏差、框定、显著效应、同伴效应、启发式决策、心理解释以及更普遍的有限理性效应。由于我们的数据非常适合评估上述许多心理因素的重要性，我们的研究可能会对行为经济学领域的发展产生广泛的影响。我们提议的许多项目将利用来自大型401(K)计划管理员的管理数据。许多现有的关于个人储蓄的研究依赖于CPS、SIPP、MRS和SCF等数据集中的自我报告信息。我们的数据很有价值，因为与家庭调查数据相比，关于401(K)选择和结果的信息要详细得多，更不容易出现测量错误。行政数据还为我们提供了关于作出这些选择的背景的信息(例如，计划设计施加的限制)。我们的数据库目前包括从1998年到2005年对137家大公司的近600万人进行的多达8次年度横断面观察。我们还拥有其中8家公司的每笔缴费率和资产配置交易的详细数据-过去9年中有1.7亿笔交易。在未来几年，我们将增加数据库中公司的数量和观察这些公司的时间段。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our proposed research will examine the determinants of individual-level savings rates, asset allocation, and asset accumulation, with a focus on 401 (k) plans. We will study the impact on savings outcomes of 401 (k) plan design, economic incentives (such as employer matching contributions), how information is presented, and intertemporal preferences. Our research will also test many of the hypotheses from the behavioral economics literature. Several of the patterns in our data suggest that psychological factors play an important role in determining investment and savings choices. These include procrastination, status quo bias, framing, salience effects, peer effects, heuristic decision-making, mental accounting, and more general bounded rationality effects. Because our data are well suited to evaluate the importance of many of the psychological factors noted above, our research is likely to have broad implications for the development of the field of behavioral economics. Many of our proposed projects will exploit administrative data from a large 401 (k) plan administrator. Much existing research on individual saving relies on self-reported information in datasets such as the CPS, SIPP, MRS, and the SCF. Our data are valuable because the information on 401 (k) choices and outcomes is much more detailed and less prone to measurement error than household survey data. Administrative data also provides us with information on the context in which those choices were made (e.g., the constraints the plan design imposed). Our database currently includes up to 8 annual cross- sectional observations from 1998 to 2005 on almost 6 million individuals at 137 large firms. We also have detailed data on every contribution rate and asset allocation transaction at 8 of these firms-170 million transactions during the past 9 years. Over the next few years, we will increase the number of companies in the database and the time period over which these companies are observed.