Assessing the Effectiveness of Saving Incentives

Robert Glenn Hubbard () and Jonathan Skinner ()

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1996, vol. 10, issue 4, pages 73-90

Abstract: The authors argue that there is more to be learned from recent research on the effectiveness of targeted saving incentives than the wide variation in empirical estimates suggests. They conclude that characterizations of 'all new saving' or 'no new saving' are extreme IRAs and 401(k) plans appear to stimulate moderate amounts of new saving. The authors suggest a cost-benefit approach to ask: What is the incremental gain in capital accumulation per dollar of foregone revenue? For quite conservative measures of the saving impacts of IRAs or 401(k)s, the incremental gains in capital accumulation per dollar of lost revenue are large.

JEL-codes: H31 J26 D12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.10.4.73
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations View citations in EconPapers (43) Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.10.4.73 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Assessing the Effectiveness of Saving Incentives (1997)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jecper:v:10:y:1996:i:4:p:73-90

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.aeaweb.org/subscribe.html

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Perspectives is edited by David H. Autor

More articles in Journal of Economic Perspectives from American Economic Association
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Jane Voros ().