Time’s Money Magazine features recent research led by ReLab Director Teresa Ghilarducci on the damaging effects of income shocks on retirement savings in, “Here's How Much a Job Loss Now Will Cost You by Retirement.”

Income shocks are pervasive, with 96 percent of Americans experiencing at least four in their working years. For example, a drop of 10 percent or more four times in your life can reduce retirement savings by $25,000 on average. This average is higher for low-income Americans, whereas wealthier Americans have healthy emergency funds to draw from. Ghilarducci challenges the notion that the retirement crisis is due to poor savings habits. Less privileged Americans have few options when unexpected hardship hits before retirement.

This paper finds that negative economic shocks cause 401(k) contribution behavior to react in ways consistent with reactions to fear and past trauma.

The number of earnings shocks people experience - job loss, divorce, health emergencies, etc - differs by income level, contributing to inequality in retirement wealth.

This paper analyzes the feedback mechanisms between economic downturns and financial stress for several euro-area countries.

USAToday's Michael Molinski's, "Don't Be a Retirement Saving Sucker: 401(k)s Not for Emergencies," discusses ReLab's research, "Household Economic Shocks Increase Retirement Wealth Inequality."