Research

I exploit a policy change for U.S. federal workers’ pension benefits to estimate the effect of pension generosity on worker retirement, retention, and recruitment. The policy increased pensions by 16-25%. I find there is a 30.3% decrease in job quits for permanent workers. However, there is little evidence that pension generosity has an effect on new hires. This suggests salience may play a role in how workers value pensions. Additionally, I find a large heterogeneous labor supply response to pension generosity. Altogether, this shows that pension generosity is effective in retaining workers and may have important implications for workforce planning.

We partner with a digital lender in Africa to examine how offering delinquent digital borrowers a strategy to repay their overdue loan (payment plan) and the possibility of regaining access to future credit (renewed eligibility) affects repayment behavior and welfare. The payment plan significantly increases repayment, settlement, and re-borrowing, while eligibility alone has no effect. Although the payment plan has no impact on welfare, the eligibility treatment raises stress and perceived financial insecurity. Our analysis suggests that impatience, time inconsistency, and liquidity constraints could play a role in explaining our results.

We study the rollout of two disability related policies that intended to increase representation in the U.S. federal workforce—an executive order to increase employment across all agencies, and a second that mandated quotas be met at each agency. The first of these is followed by a large increase in disability employment. At lower-pay positions, increases in representation are largely through hiring, while at higher-pay positions increases are through updating disability statuses. However, with the quota introduction we find evidence that agencies target the minimum threshold—this lead to declines in disability representation at agencies that were already in compliance.

In 2006, the State of Alaska transitioned from a defined benefit retirement system to a defined contribution system for all newly hired public education employees—a majority of which are teachers. For employees, these plans accrue approximately similar wealth at retirement. Using administrative records, we examine whether the reform altered labor market outcomes for new cohorts. At the threshold of policy implementation, there is no significant change in new hires for both quantity and observable characteristics such as age or previous experience. Further, there is no significant difference in retention up to 14 years post-policy implementation.