PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Goda, Gopi Shah
AU  - Jones, Damon
AU  - Manchester, Colleen Flaherty
TI  - Retirement Plan Type and Employee Mobility
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.52.3.0315-6997R1
DP  - 2017 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 654--679
VI  - 52
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/52/3/654.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/52/3/654.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2017 Jul 01; 52
AB  - Relative to defined benefit (DB) plans, defined contribution (DC) plans have been linked to greater employee mobility. Because employees with different underlying mobility tendencies may sort across plans or firms, the relationship between plan type and mobility may be due to selection. We identify the role of selection by exploiting a natural experiment at an employer, in which the transition from a DB to a DC pension plan was affected by default rules. Using the default assignment as a source of exogenous variation in plan enrollment, we find that employees with higher mobility tendencies self-select into the DC plan.