Are Defined Contribution Plans a Commitment Device?

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Guo ◽  
Michael Finke
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Defined Contribution ◽  
Defined Contribution Plans ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Future ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Commitment Devices ◽  
Commitment Device

Many who want to save more for retirement are tripped up by short-run temptations. Yet, some can still achieve their goals by using commitment devices to limit suboptimal behavior. Defined contribution plans in the United States resemble a commitment device because they are framed as savings for the future and penalize early withdrawals. This study investigates whether defined contribution plans are particularly useful for households that value the future and exhibit self-control problems. We find that participation in defined contribution plans has a greater impact on wealth accumulation among households with hyperbolic preferences. Our results suggest that those who find it difficult to resist short-run temptation can achieve long-run goals through the use of less liquid accounts and automated savings.

scholarly journals Teamwork as a Self-Disciplining Device

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Fahn ◽  
Hendrik Hakenes
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Team Formation ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Relational Contract ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Utility ◽  
Commitment Device

We show that team formation can serve as an implicit commitment device to overcome problems of self-control. If individuals have present-biased preferences, effort that is costly today but rewarded at some later point in time is too low from the perspective of an individual’s long-run self. If agents interact repeatedly and can monitor each other, a relational contract involving teamwork can help to improve performance. The mutual promise to work harder is credible because the team breaks up after an agent has not kept this promise, which leads to individual underproduction in the future, reducing future utility. (JEL D11, D71, D86, M54)

Commitment Devices

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-35
Author(s):  
Michael Möcker
Keyword(s):  
Standard Model ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Signaling Game ◽  
Control Problems ◽  
The Standard Model ◽  
Signaling Effect ◽  
The Future ◽  
Commitment Devices ◽  
Commitment Device

Commitment devices are regularly celebrated as an easy-to-use, budget way to dodge self-control problems. Analysis of a Bénabou and Tirole-style signaling game (2004) casts doubts on this view. Adding a commitment device to the standard model reveals difficulties: An agent relying on a commitment device to restrain his future self is less restrained in the present. Committing to do an unpleasant activity in the future leads to procrastination as the signaling effect of doing it now disappears. Therefore some agents may be better off without access to commitment devices. Policy implications are discussed.

The Impact of Monetary and Fiscal Policies on the Stock Market in the United States (U.S); Evidence from Linear ARDL Framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-132
Author(s):  
Aref Emamian
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Stock Market ◽  
The United States ◽  
Real Effective Exchange Rate ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
Fiscal Policies ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Us ◽  
Short Run ◽  
The Impact

This study examines the impact of monetary and fiscal policies on the stock market in the United States (US), were used. By employing the method of Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) developed by Pesaran et al. (2001). Annual data from the Federal Reserve, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, from 1986 to 2017 pertaining to the American economy, the results show that both policies play a significant role in the stock market. We find a significant positive effect of real Gross Domestic Product and the interest rate on the US stock market in the long run and significant negative relationship effect of Consumer Price Index (CPI) and broad money on the US stock market both in the short run and long run. On the other hand, this study only could support the significant positive impact of tax revenue and significant negative impact of real effective exchange rate on the US stock market in the short run while in the long run are insignificant. Keywords: ARDL, monetary policy, fiscal policy, stock market, United States

A Comprehensive Review of the Evolution of Accounting Standards for State and Local Government Pensions and Other Postemployment Benefits in The United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-77
Author(s):  
Dale L. Flesher ◽  
Craig Foltin ◽  
Gary John Previts ◽  
Mary S. Stone
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Accounting Standards ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
Defined Benefit ◽  
Defined Contribution ◽  
Defined Contribution Plans ◽  
State And Local Government ◽  
State And Local

ABSTRACT Both the business media and the popular press have emphasized the underfunding problems associated with pension funds that are set aside for state and local government workers, a group that also includes teachers and professors at state-affiliated colleges and universities. The realization that pension funds are typically underfunded stems from the fact that the accounting standards associated with state and local government employee pension funds have led to greater transparency since 2011. This paper examines, explains, and interprets the historical development over the last 70 years of accounting standards for state and local government pension funds in the United States. Changing accounting standards, along with economic and social change, have led to consequences such as employers transforming their pension programs to avoid substantial costs and significant liabilities, for example by changing from defined benefit to defined contribution plans.

scholarly journals Impact of Public Debt, Deficit and Debt Financing on Private Investment in a Large Country: Evidence from the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-161
Author(s):  
Amir Kia
Keyword(s):  
Public Debt ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Private Investment ◽  
Adjustment Costs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Large Country ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run

This paper analyses the direct impact of fiscal variables on private investment. The current literature ignores one or more fiscal variables and, in many cases, the foreign financing of debt. In this paper, an aggregate investment function for an economy in which firms incur adjustment costs in their investment process is developed. The developed model incorporates the direct impact of government expenditure, public debt and investment, deficits and foreign-financed debt on private investment. The model is tested on US data. It is found that public investment does not have any impact on private investment, but government expenditure, deficit, debt and foreign-financed debt crowd out private investment over the long run. However, deficit crowds in the private investment over the short run.

Consumption, aggregate wealth and expected stock returns: a quantile cointegration approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Quineche
Keyword(s):  
Stock Returns ◽  
The United States ◽  
Labor Income ◽  
Left Tail ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Excess Stock Returns ◽  
Aggregate Wealth ◽  
Risk Free Rate ◽  
The Right

Abstract This paper empirically examines the long-run relationship between consumption, asset wealth and labor income (i.e., cay) in the United States through the lens of a quantile cointegration approach. The advantage of using this approach is that it allows for a nonlinear relationship between these variables depending on the level of consumption. We estimate the coefficients using a Phillips–Hansen type fully modified quantile estimator to correct for the presence of endogeneity in the cointegrating relationship. To test for the null of cointegration at each quantile, we apply a quantile CUSUM test. Results show that: (i) consumption is more sensitive to changes in labor income than to changes in asset wealth for the entire distribution of consumption, (ii) the elasticity of consumption with respect to labor income (asset wealth) is larger at the right (left) tail of the consumption distribution than at the left (right) tail, (iii) the series are cointegrated around the median, but not in the tails of the distribution of consumption, (iv) using the estimated cay obtained for the right (left) tail of the distribution of consumption improves the long-run (short-run) forecast ability on real excess stock returns over a risk-free rate.

Resilient homeownership: how partnership-based finance would have prevented the 2008 US mortgage crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mejda Bahlous-Boldi
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
House Price ◽  
Capital Gains ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Causality Test ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Default Rates ◽  
Short Run

Purpose The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the conventional mortgage system is not appropriate for household finance because it encourages equity extraction and excessive leverage during housing boom and leads to negative equity during a housing bust, a situation that translates into mortgage defaults and foreclosures. Home financing could alternatively be structured as a diminishing partnership preventing the homeowner from ever having negative equity. Design/methodology/approach Using Johansen’s cointegration test, the authors provide evidence of a long-run relationship between the delinquency rates, volume of refinancing and the change in house price index (HPI) during the 1994–2019 period. To unravel the short run dynamics between these variables, the authors used a Granger causality test that concludes that the volume of refinancing and the change in the HPI Granger cause default rates. Findings The authors provide evidence that under the current conventional mortgage system, excessive refinancing opportunities and equity extraction that are the main factors determining delinquency rates leading to a non-sustainable homeownership. Practical implications If mortgages were such that they do not incentivize defaults and foreclosures during a housing downturn, the recovery of the housing market always leads to capital gains. Therefore, disincentivizing refinancing and equity extraction would lead to a more sustainable homeownership. Social implications Households would be encouraged to pursue sustainable homeownership through a partnership-based model with long-term wealth accumulation for themselves and their heirs rather than short-term home ownership through the conventional mortgage system, leading to negative equity and defaults when the housing market slumps. Originality/value Policymakers ought to rethink the mortgage design by promoting partnership-based finance to protect the equity a household accumulates over a lifetime and thereby enhancing stable and sustainable homeownership.

scholarly journals Local Economic Impacts of Coal Mining in the United States 1870 to 1970

2016 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 1152-1181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Matheis
Keyword(s):  
Coal Mining ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
The United States ◽  
County Level ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Local Areas ◽  
Manufacturing Activity ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Current Resource ◽  
Net Benefits

This article expands upon the current “resource curse” literature by using newly collected county data, spanning over a century, to capture the short- and long-run effects of coal mining activity. It provides evidence that increased levels of coal production had positive net impacts on county-level population and manufacturing activity over an initial ten-year span, which become negative over the subsequent decades. The results provide evidence that any existence of a “resource curse” on local areas due to coal mining is a long-run phenomenon, and in the short run there are potential net benefits.

Finance and Capital in the United States, 1850–1900

1967 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Sylla
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Banking System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Antebellum Era ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Rapid Industrialization

The connections between financial development and economic growth are drawing increased attention on many fronts. This dissertation studies ways in which the American financial system functioned to aid in the accumulation and mobilization of capital in the second half of the nineteenth century. The evolution of the banking system, by far the dominant nineteenth-century financial intermediary, is emphasized, but the role of Federal government finance is of scarcely less importance. The interrelated actions of the banks and the Treasury did much to set the tone in various financial markets during most of the period. While considerable study has been devoted to these actions and their short-run effects, much less has been written about their long-run implications. A major contention of the work is that financial strains caused by the Civil War and the various responses to these strains were accompanied by significant changes in the banking system—in its structure, the types of assets in which it dealt, and in its relations with the Treasury—all of which increased its potential for satisfying the demands placed upon it by a rapidly expanding economy. These changes helped to make capital, which may well have been the relatively scarce factor in the antebellum era, more abundant in the postwar Gilded Age, and they therefore abetted the rapid industrialization of those decades.

Survival and Abolition: The Eighteenth Century Paraguayan Encomienda

1981 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Schofield Saeger
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
High Position ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Future ◽  
Short Run ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The history of the encomienda is an oft' told tale, although certain questions about the institution still provoke debate. Even the Paraguayan encomienda has received conscientious scholarly attention, most of which concentrates on the Habsburg period rather than the eighteenth century, when the institution had been eliminated in many areas.But in eighteenth century Paraguay the encomienda was still an important institution. Members of the provincial elite placed great value on its possession. Since high position in the province was synonymous with encomendero status, membership in the encomendero class was exceedingly important. The crown's decision to abolish the system in the 1770s had important consequences for the future of Paraguay. In the short run it meant a gain for royal interests; in the long run it spelled disaster for the Spanish crown.

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