SFS Cavalcade North America 2026
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia
May 18-21, 2026
Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 18th June 2026, 06:51:33pm EDT
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Daily Overview |
| Session | ||
Track W2-4: Household Finance and Retirement Behavior
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| Presentations | ||
Improving 401(k) Matches Using Hypothetical Choices 1Yale University; 2MIT Sloan; 3Vanguard How should employer 401(k) matching formulas, which allocate $250 billion annually, be designed to raise employee saving and reduce inequality in employer contributions? We use survey responses to hypothetical scenarios to predict how individuals would save under counterfactual policies. We then characterize the frontier of achievable saving-equity combinations. We find that survey responses accurately predict contribution choices in administrative 401(k) data, saving is inelastic to the match rate, and non-elective contributions do not crowd out employee saving. Therefore, a lower match rate applied up to a higher cap paired with a nonelective contribution achieves higher savings and more equitable employer contributions. Many existing formulas—including those designated as safe-harbors—are dominated along both dimensions. | ||

