When a Nudge Isn’t Enough: Defaults and Saving Among Low-Income Tax Filers
Erin Bronchetti,
Thomas Dee,
David B. Hufman and
Ellen Magenheim
National Tax Journal, 2013, vol. 66, issue 3, 609-634
Abstract:
This study discusses a field experiment on default options and savings decisions by low-income households at the time of federal tax filing. In the treatment, a fraction of the tax refund was automatically directed to U.S. Savings Bonds unless filers actively chose another allocation. We find that this opt-out default had no impact on savings, and our treatment estimate is sufficiently precise to reject effects as small as 20 percent of those found in the literature on defaults and 401(k) plans. Our results have implications for understanding when default interventions will be effective and when their influence will be limited.
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)
Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2013.3.04 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2013.3.04 (text/html)
Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
Related works:
Working Paper: When a Nudge Isn't Enough: Defaults and Saving Among Low-Income Tax Filers (2011) 
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ntj:journl:v:66:y:2013:i:3:p:609-634
Access Statistics for this article
National Tax Journal is currently edited by Stacy Dickert-Conlin and William M. Gentry
More articles in National Tax Journal from National Tax Association, National Tax Journal Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by The University of Chicago Press ().