In a new NBER paper, “Supplemental Plan Offerings and Retirement Saving Choices: An Analysis of North Carolina School Districts,” Robert Clark, Emma Hanson, Melinda Sandler Morrill, and Aditi Pathak examine the use of supplemental retirement plans in 53 North Carolina districts.
On average, one-third of school district employees contribute to one or more supplemental retirement plans (See Table 2 below). There is, however, a great deal of variation among the districts. Clark and his colleagues find that “having more vendors in the 403(b) plan is associated with higher participation rates in any plan.” In other words, choices matter.
