Household Investment in 529 College Savings Plans and Information Processing Frictions

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Wharton Pension Research Council Working Papers
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Economics
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Economics
life cycle saving
household finance
529 plans
information frictions
financial literacy
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author or copyright holder retaining all copyrights in the submitted work
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2024
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Abstract

We investigate how information processing frictions contribute to household suboptimal saving and investment behavior. We find that 60% of open accounts in college 529 savings plans are invested suboptimally due to high expenses and tax inefficiency. Such investments yield an expected loss of 9% over the accounts’ projected lifetimes. Consistent with information processing frictions contributing to inefficient investment, the extent of investment in suboptimal home-state accounts decreases with household financial literacy and increases with plan document disclosure complexity. Overall, our results suggest that information processing frictions shape households’ suboptimal investment in college savings plans and reduce their financial well-being.

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2024-01-16
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The authors are grateful for research support from The Wharton School, the Wharton Dean’s Research Fund, and the Pension Research Council/Boettner Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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