New paper: “Do People Save More After They Marry?”

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has released a new Issue in Brief:

“Do People Save More After They Marry?”

by Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher and Wenliang Hou

The brief’s key findings are:

• The question is whether people getting married later has any effect on retirement saving.
• The analysis focuses on individuals' contributions to a 401(k) plan before and after marriage.
• The results show that marriage is associated with higher participation and contribution rates for both men and women.
• These effects are relatively modest, however, so the impact on retirement wealth from delaying marriage is likely to be small.

This brief is available here.