Does Pension Automatic Enrollment Increase Debt? Evidence from a Large-Scale Natural Experiment

Beshears is with Harvard Business School and NBER; Blakstad, Notley, and Sandbrook are with the National Employment Savings Trust; Choi is with the Yale School of Management and NBER; Firth, Gathergood, and Sheth are with the University of Nottingham; Laibson is with Harvard University and NBER; Stewart is with Warwick Business School. The authors thank Alejandro Portocarrero, Kiean Hoang-Le, and Richard Lombardo for excellent research assistance, and Jose Tessada and audiences at EDHEC, King’s College London, the Tinbergen Institute, University College London, the Finance UC International Conference, and the Bank of England & Imperial College Business School Work-shop on Household Finance and Housing for helpful comments. We acknowledge research support from the Blackrock Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation and the UK Money and Pensions Service. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• February 1, 2024