This article summarizes current research on the impact of employer matching on 401(k) saving. In particular, the author outlines the reasons why this impact is difficult to identify, and describes his research with the Health and Retirement Study. Professor Engelhardt finds greater diversity in matching provisions compared with previous studies and he exploits this diversity in statistical analyses to find that employer matching significantly raises 401(k) saving. The implications of this research for policy are also discussed in this article.
This research paper can be found in the TIAA-CREF Institute publication, Research Dialogue no. 76.
