In an individual decision-making experiment, we investigate the impact of Tax Deferred Accounts (TDAs). We design six treatments to study various channels through which TDAs may affect decisions. Across both student and Mturk samples, we consistently find that TDAs significantly increase retirement wealth compared to environments with only one non-tax advantaged, liquid saving account. This increase is primarily explained by the requirement of making retirement savings decisions precede consumption decisions. Educating participants by providing a tax calculator has minimal effects. Our results highlight the effectiveness of TDAs in enhancing retirement preparedness and the significance of the order of consumption/savings decisions.

Since Griliches (1969), researchers have been intrigued by the idea that physical capital and skilled labor are more complementary than physical capital and unskilled labor. In this paper we consider the cross-country evidence for capital-skill complementarity using a time-series cross-section panel of 73 developed and less developed countries over a 25-year period. We focus on three empirical issues. First, what is the best specification of the aggregate production technology to address the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis? Second, how should we measure skilled labor? Finally, is there any cross-country evidence in support of the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis? Our main finding is that there is some empirical support for the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis in our macro panel data set.