Data and Code for Efficiency in Household Decision Making: Evidence from the Retirement Savings of US Couples

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Taha Choukhmane, MIT Sloan School of Management; Lucas Goodman, United States Department of the Treasury. Office of Tax Analysis; Cormac O'Dea, Yale University

Version: View help for Version V1

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Project Citation:

Choukhmane, Taha, Goodman, Lucas , and O’Dea, Cormac. Data and Code for Efficiency in Household Decision Making: Evidence from the Retirement Savings of US Couples . Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-04-14. https://doi.org/10.3886/E216286V1

Project Description

Summary: We study how couples allocate retirement-saving contributions across each spouse's account. In a new dataset covering over a million U.S. individuals, we find retirement contributions are not allocated to the account with the highest employer match rate. This lack of coordination—which goes against the assumptions of most models of household decision-making—is common, costly, persistent over time, and cannot be explained by inertia, auto-enrollment, or simple heuristics. Complementing the administrative evidence with an online survey, we find that inefficient allocations reflect both financial mistakes as well as deliberate choices—especially when trust and commitment inside the households are weak.

Funding Sources: The research reported herein was performed pursuant to grant RDR18000003 from the US Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium. (RDR18000003)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: marriage; efficiency; household models

JEL Classification:
      D13 Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation
      D15 Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
      D19 Household Behavior and Family Economics: Other
      J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse

Geographic Coverage: United States

Time Period(s): 1/1/2005 – 12/31/2018

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V1 [2025-04-14]

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