Do Nudges Help Americans Save for Retirement? Not as Much as We Thought.
As a young finance scholar, one of the first topics Professor James Choi tackled was how automatic enrollment in retirement plans affects Americans’ saving. Two decades ago, putting employees into a 401(k) by default, rather than requiring them to proactively opt in, was a novel idea. Choi and his collaborators found that this small nudge yielded significant effects: at one company they studied, automatic enrollment increased 401(k) participation rates by…

