NB20-14: The Determinants and Evolution of Firm Retirement Saving Plans: Evidence from a New Panel Data Set

There is substantial heterogeneity in the features of employer-provided retirement savings plans. Why firms differ in their offerings, and why these change over time is not well-understood. To shed light on the determinants and evolution of US firms’ retirement savings plan offerings, we propose to generate and analyze a new comprehensive data set of firms’ defined contribution plan characteristics covering the past 15 years. The characteristics that we will investigate are i) non-elective contributions, ii) match rates and caps, iii) vesting schedules, iv) permissibility of loans, and v) auto-enrollment/auto-escalation features. There is currently no comprehensive data resource available on how firms’ retirement savings plans are
changing. We propose to fill this gap, by generating the first comprehensive and detailed panel data set of retirement plan features. This novel data will allow us to tackle new questions including i) How do retirement plan features correlate with firm characteristics? ii) How do these plan features respond to aggregate economic conditions? iii) How do these features respond to firm-level shocks? iv) How do firms respond to regulatory changes (e.g. new Safe Harbor provisions)?