Household Economic Shocks Increase Retirement Wealth Inequality

Teresa Ghilarducci, Siavash Radpour, Bridget Fisher and Anthony Webb ()

No 2016-01, SCEPA policy note series. from Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School

Abstract: Economic shocks, such as job-loss, have a particularly adverse effect on the retirement savings of workers in low-income households, exacerbating retirement savings inequality. Low income households are more likely than moderate- and upper-income households to experience economic shocks. Workers in low-income households are also more likely to withdraw from their retirement account after a shock. This study shows that these shocks have significant effects on the finances of low-income households, causing up to a third of all withdrawals, and possibly more.

Keywords: Retirement; 401(k); GRA; Social Security (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 E21 H55 J26 J32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10 pages
Date: 2016-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-mac, nep-pbe and nep-pub
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epa:cepapn:2016-01

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