Abstract
July 19, 2021, Paper: "Does automatic enrollment into a retirement plan increase financial distress due to increased borrowing outside the plan? We study a natural experiment created when the U.S. Army began automatically enrolling newly hired civilian employees into the Thrift Savings Plan. Four years after hire, automatic enrollment increases cumulative contributions to the plan by 4.1% of annual salary, but we find little evidence of increased financial distress. Automatic enrollment causes no significant change in credit scores, debt balances excluding auto debt and first mortgages, or adverse credit outcomes, with the possible exception of increased first-mortgage balances in foreclosure." Read Via the Journal of Finance
Non-HKS Author Websites - John Beshears and David Laibson