Effect of the Catch-Up Contribution Policy on the Racial Retirement Wealth Gap  

Effect of the Catch-Up Contribution Policy on the Racial Retirement Wealth Gap | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Effect of the Catch-Up Contribution Policy on the Racial Retirement Wealth Gap Manita Rao, Ngoc Dao This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8690991/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 6 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The racial retirement wealth gap is a significant policy challenge; Black and Hispanic households have nearly three times lower retirement wealth than White Households. Federal catch-up contribution policies have sought to address the issue by providing additional tax incentives to encourage higher contributions from near retirees. This paper examines the effect of the Catch-up Contribution policy on disparities in retirement wealth. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this paper exploits a natural experiment to estimate the effect of the Catch-up Contribution policy on several outcomes of retirement and non-retirement wealth including access, contributions and balances in retirement accounts, asset ownership, net worth and household debt. Our findings show the effect of the Catch-up Contribution policy varies significantly by racial group and retirement asset type. We find decrease in 401(k) account ownership and contributions among Hispanic individuals, but significant increase in invested assets and lower household debt for this group indicative of higher net worth. We find no significant effects on retirement wealth of Black households. Taken together, while the racial gap in retirement account ownership and contribution has widened, the policy contributed to marginal narrowing of the racial gap in retirement account balances, net worth and invested assets. JEL Codes: D14, D15, G51, J15, J26 Household Savings Retirement Wealth Racial Wealth Gap Catch-up Contribution Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Mar, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 02 Mar, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 26 Jan, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 26 Jan, 2026 First submitted to journal 25 Jan, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8690991","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":599086895,"identity":"3d506823-7d1f-493e-8ad1-08891bb2efef","order_by":0,"name":"Manita Rao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"AARP","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Manita","middleName":"","lastName":"Rao","suffix":""},{"id":599086896,"identity":"bc0a7f50-a8c4-400c-8588-f1e503367554","order_by":1,"name":"Ngoc Dao","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAo0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFCCBAaGDwcgTAmitTDOIFkLMw9JWszZkx8+tjljI2/OwHzwNg8xWix7nhkb59xIM9zZwJZsTZQWgxsJZtI5Hw4zbjjAYyZNpJb0b9IWH/7bbzjA/41YLTlm0gw3DiQCbWEjUsuZN8WGPWeSkzccZjO2nEOUluPpGx/8OGZnu+F488Mbb4jRggDMpCkfBaNgFIyCUYAPAADlrTRQpU0FRAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Kean University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ngoc","middleName":"","lastName":"Dao","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-25 08:08:06","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8690991/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8690991/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":103948456,"identity":"7c83815b-1d9f-42ea-a50e-d8b61af11ba9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-04 23:09:24","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1684559,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8690991/v1_covered_0f5fbbd4-99a2-4845-a551-653bfabd2802.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Effect of the Catch-Up Contribution Policy on the Racial Retirement Wealth Gap ","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"the-journal-of-economic-inequality","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"joei","sideBox":"Learn more about [The Journal of Economic Inequality](http://link.springer.com/journal/10888)","snPcode":"10888","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10888/3","title":"The Journal of Economic Inequality","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Household Savings, Retirement Wealth, Racial Wealth Gap, Catch-up Contribution","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8690991/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8690991/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe racial retirement wealth gap is a significant policy challenge; Black and Hispanic households have nearly three times lower retirement wealth than White Households. 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