<p><p>In April 2001, the UK government introduced Stakeholder Pensions - a new private pension arrangement. The reform also changed the structure of tax-relieved pension contribution ceilings, increasing their generosity for lower-earners. We examine the impact of these changes on private pension coverage using individual level data. We use a difference-in-differences strategy with an estimator that is modified to allow for dichotomous outcomes. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that the Stakeholder Pension reforms had little or no impact on saving behaviour, our results indicate that the change to the contribution ceilings affected private pension coverage rates among lower-earners, especially among women.</p></p>
Authors

Deputy Director
Carl, a Deputy Director, is an editor of the IFS Green Budget, an expert on the UK pension system and sits on the Social Security Advisory Committee.

Research Associate University of Bologna
Matthew is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna focusing on consumption and savings choices and how policy affects them.

Research Associate University of Sussex
Richard is an IFS Research Associate, a Part-time Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex and a Visiting Professor of Economics at UCL.
Journal article details
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Issue
- April 2010
Suggested citation
R, Disney and C, Emmerson and M, Wakefield. (2010). 'Tax reform and retirement saving incentives: evidence from the introduction of stakeholder pensions in the UK' (2010)
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