This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

The AEA website will be offline briefly for scheduled maintenance after 10:00pm (EST) this evening.
  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. May 2017
  5. Some Lasting Effects of Undergraduate Economics on Retirement Planning

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Some Lasting Effects of Undergraduate Economics on Retirement Planning

  • William Bosshardt
  • William B. Walstad
American Economic Review
vol. 107, no. 5, May 2017
(pp. 650–54)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

This study investigated the likely effects of undergraduate economics on whether a college graduate has opened a retirement account four years after graduation. Economic education is measured by the number of economics credit hours or whether a college graduate had majored in economics. Additional control variables for the logit analyses include occupation differences, employment record, and some demographics. Completing an undergraduate course in economics is significantly associated with having a retirement account, and economics majors are more likely than some other majors to have a retirement account. The analysis uses college transcript data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond study (nces.ed.gov/surveys/b&b/).

Citation

Bosshardt, William, and William B. Walstad. 2017. "Some Lasting Effects of Undergraduate Economics on Retirement Planning." American Economic Review 107 (5): 650–54. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20171068

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • A22 Economic Education and Teaching of Economics: Undergraduate
  • D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
  • I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
  • J26 Retirement; Retirement Policies