EI Feature: "How do firms respond to state retirement plan mandates?"

Economic Inquiry,

The EI Editors invite you to browse the January 2025 issue featured article:

"How do firms respond to state retirement plan mandates?"

  • Adam Bloomfield, U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Washington, DC, USA 
  • Kyung Min Lee, The World Bank, Washington, DC, USA 
  • Jay Philbrick, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA 
  • Sita Nataraj Slavov, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia, USA 

ABSTRACT: We investigate how state “Auto-IRA” mandates affect firm offerings of employer-sponsored retirement plans (ESRPs). These policies require firms without ESRPs to facilitate automatic employee contributions to state-created individual retirement accounts. We find that these policies increase an individual's probability of working for a firm with an ESRP by 6%–9% and of being included in the ESRP by 8%–13%. At the firm level, these policies increase the probability of offering an ESRP by 7%, the probability of establishing a new ESRP by 41%–44%, and the number of ESRP participants by 6 percent. 

First published: 22 October 2024 

READ ARTICLE ONLINE