Conference Paper
The Impacts of Matching Contributions on Retirement Savings: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment
No.
ERF30_5
Publisher
ERF
Date
March, 2024
Using a large administrative dataset containing information for over 39 million private pension contracts and quasi-experimental research design provided by matching contribution policy reform in Turkey, we investigate the effectiveness of nationwide matching contributions in promoting saving outcomes and explore differences in responses to the program among participants. By leveraging two distinct policy changes, we estimate the marginal and net effects of matching contributions on participants’ saving decisions separately. Our differences-in-differences estimations reveal that the matching contribution policy increases contributions paid by 6 percent. Additionally, we analyze the impact of a sharp increase of 30 percent in the match threshold on participants’ contributions paid. Our results suggest that the nationwide matching contribution policy wields a notable yet relatively modest impact on augmenting saving contributions. Notably, we discern substantial variations in the responses to the program among different participant groups.
Authors
Sadettin Haluk Çitçi
Full Professor in Economics, Gebze Technical University
Authors
Halit Yanikkaya
Professor, Department of Economics, Gebze Technical University,...