Replication data for: Can Information Change Personal Retirement Savings? Evidence from Social Security Benefits Statement Mailings

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Susan Payne Carter; William Skimmyhorn

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
LICENSE.txt text/plain 14.6 KB 12/07/2019 10:19:AM
aea-pnp-carter-skimmyhorn-DO.do text/plain 15.3 KB 12/07/2019 10:19:AM
aea-pnp-carter-skimmyhorn-READ-ME.docx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document 13.4 KB 12/07/2019 10:19:AM

Project Citation: 

Carter, Susan Payne, and Skimmyhorn, William. Replication data for: Can Information Change Personal Retirement Savings? Evidence from Social Security Benefits Statement Mailings. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2018. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-12-07. https://doi.org/10.3886/E116445V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Despite concern about the viability of public retirement programs and potential undersaving for retirement, we still know little about the impact of government provided information on individual behavior. We exploit plausibly exogenous variation in exposure to the world's largest personalized retirement benefits statement from the US Social Security Administration to evaluate the effects of information and encouragement on individual retirement savings decisions. Using three natural experiments between 2011 and 2014 and administrative data, we find no impact of the statements on individual retirement savings in their employer provided retirement accounts.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
      D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
      H55 Social Security and Public Pensions
      J26 Retirement; Retirement Policies
      J32 Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions


Related Publications

Unable to retrieve related publications.
Download this project

Loading usage statistics...

Published Versions

V1 [2019-12-07]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

Report a Problem

Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.

This work is licensed under an Other license created by the data depositor. Please refer to the LICENSE file, which should be located alongside the project data and documentation.

This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.