PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Gopi Shah Goda
AU  - Damon Jones
AU  - Colleen Flaherty Manchester
TI  - Retirement Plan Type and Employee Mobility: The Role of Selection
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.52.3.0315-6997R1
DP  - 2016 Aug 17
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0315-6997R1
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2016/08/15/jhr.52.3.0315-6997R1.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2016/08/15/jhr.52.3.0315-6997R1.full
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.