New Evidence on the Effect of Economic Shocks on Retirement Plan Withdrawals

Teresa Ghilarducci, Siavash Radpour and Anthony Webb ()

No 2018-03, SCEPA working paper series. from Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School

Abstract: Using data from the Survey for Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study investigates the relationship between withdrawals from 401(k) and IRA accounts and household level economic shocks such as job-loss, job change, divorce, and the onset of poor health. Workers in low-wage households are more likely to withdraw from their accounts than those in middle and high income households, in part because they experience more shocks, and are more likely to withdraw, conditional on experiencing a shock. The above shocks are associated with about a fifth of all retirement account withdrawals and exacerbate pre-existing inequalities in financial preparation for retirement.

Keywords: retirement savings; retirement; retirement wealth; economic shocks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J11 J26 J32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epa:cepawp:2018-03

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