Mingli Zhong

• Mingli Zhong (Working), Optimal Default Retirement Saving Policies: Theory and Evidence from OregonSaves (Job Market Paper). Abstract

  Many U.S. states are launching state-sponsored auto-enrollment retirement plans, with the goal of boosting retirement savings among private-sector workers lacking access to employer-sponsored retirement plans. This paper provides an analysis of state-sponsored auto-enrollment plans, and specifically, the plan’s default contribution rate. We develop a tractable framework to derive the optimal default contribution rate taking into account workers’ decisions on adhering to the default contribution rate. The optimal default contribution rate is shaped by the social benefits of increased savings due to adherence to the default that keeps workers from undersaving, while reducing reliance on means-tested social transfers. The optimal default contribution rate is also counterbalanced by the social benefits of action when an undesirable default option compels workers to make an active decision. To estimate these counterbalancing social welfare forces, we use individual-level administrative and survey data from OregonSaves, the state-sponsored plan offered by the Oregon state government, and suggest the optimal default contribution rate to be 8%.

• John Chalmers, Olivia S. Mitchell, Jonathan Reuter, Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, Mingli Zhong, Auto-Enrollment Retirement Plans for the People: Choices and Outcomes in OregonSaves.
• Mingli Zhong, Unemployment Insurance, Moral Hazard, and Age Discrimination in the Labor Market. Abstract

  This paper investigates whether the effect of unemployment insurance benefits on unemployment duration varies by age over the business cycle. When tested individually, the unemployment durations of younger workers are significantly raised by the same level of increase in UI benefits more in a boom than in a recession, while those of older workers are equally affected over the business cycle. This difference between age groups is \textit{not} significant when tested as an interaction effect in a more stringent regression model. Similarly, we also find that the age effect reported in previous study is non-significant when subjected to the same procedure of regression analysis. The current findings suggest that incorporating age into the design of UI benefits should require further study and more credible evidence.

Past Courses

• BEPP2500 - Managerial Economics

  This course will introduce you to "managerial economics" which is the application of microeconomic theory to managerial decision-making. Microeconomic theory is a remarkably useful body of ideas for understanding and analyzing the behavior of individuals and firms in a variety of economic settings. The goal of the course is for you to understand this body of theory well enough so that you can effectively analyze managerial (and other) problems in an economic framework. While this is a "tools" course, we will cover many real-world applications, particularly business applications, so that you can witness the usefulness of these tools and acquire the skills to use them yourself. We will depart from the usual microeconomic theory course by giving more emphasis to prescription: What should a manager do in order to achieve some objective? That course deliverable is to compare with description: Why do firms and consumers act the way they do? The latter will still be quite prominent in this course because only by understanding how other firms and customers behave can a manager determine what is beswt for him or her to do. Strategic interaction is explored both in product markets and auctions. Finally, the challenges created by asymmetric information - both in the market and within the firm - are investigated.

• BEPP9500 - Managerial Economics

  Public goods, externalities, uncertainty, and income redistribution as sources of market failures; private market and collective choice models as possible correcting mechanisms. Microeconomic theories of taxation and public sector expenditures. The administration and organization of the public sector.

• Dissertation Fellowship from the Social Security Administration and the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, 2019
• Robert R. Nathan Fellowship, 2019
• “OregonSaves – An Analysis of Participating in State-Sponsored Retirement Plans”, Grant from U.S. Social Security Administration, 2019
• “The Effect of Default Retirement Savings on Credit Scores”, Grant from Wharton’s Boettner Center/Pension Research Council, 2019
• “Phase II Survey Incentives for the OregonSaves Project”, Grant from AARP, 2018
• “Understanding Retirement Plan Default Behavior: The Case of OregonSaves”, Grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2018
• “Understanding Retirement Plan Default Behavior”, Grant from Wharton’s Boettner Center/Pension Research Council, 2017
• Wharton Risk Center Russell Ackoff Doctoral Student Fellowship, 2016
• Bradley Foundation Fellowship, 2015

• “Auto-Enrollment Retirement Plans for the People: Choices and Outcomes in OregonSaves”, 21st Annual Social Security Administration Research Consortium Meeting at the National Press Club - 08/02/2019

Knowledge @ Wharton

• College Football Playoffs with Bill Connelly, Knowledge @ Wharton - 01/08/2025
• The Real Estate Market Survived Until 2025. What’s Next?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 01/07/2025
• AI in 2025: What Challenges Lie Ahead?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 01/07/2025
• Jeremy Siegel: 2025 Outlook for Stocks and the Economy, Knowledge @ Wharton - 01/07/2025
• What’s Ahead for Real Estate in 2025?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 01/07/2025
• Confidence in Cryptocurrency | David Reibstein and John Zhang (Part 1), Knowledge @ Wharton - 01/07/2025
• What’s Ahead for the Economy in 2025, Knowledge @ Wharton - 01/06/2025
• How Did AI Grow in 2024 and What’s in Store for 2025?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 01/02/2025
• NFL Data Science with Tom Bliss, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/25/2024
• Overwhelmed by Too Many Choices When Shopping? Wharton Retail Expert Weighs In, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/19/2024