Labor Economics Commons^™

Rethinking Retirement For The 21st Century, Stephen C. Russo

Major Papers

Canada’s labour force has been gradually growing older in recent decades. An aging labour force creates significant problems for the country and the future growth of our economy. With an aging labour force, comes the need to start rethinking how Canadians look at retirement in the 21^st century and how both the government and private sector can contribute solutions to adapting to an older workforce. This problem is not unique to Canada, most of the industrialized west has been or will begin to experience the same demographic shift as we are in Canada. The main challenge this paper examines …

Rewards For Continued Work: The Economic Incentives For Postponing Retirement, Olivia S. Mitchell, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This chapter develops empirical measures of the economic incentives for deferred retirement among older workers. Using a new data file on pay and pensions, we construct intertemporal budget sets reflecting income available to workers at alternative retirement ages. The analysis explores how continued labor force attachment is rewarded in terms of net earnings, Social Security benefits, and private pension income.

Sustaining Social Security In An Era Of Population Aging, John A. Turner

Upjohn Press

John A. Turner offers a set of reforms for restoring solvency to Social Security that are deemed to have merit in the current political climate. These reforms relate to several vexing issues including increased life expectancy, the growing relationship between income and life expectancy, the declines in the physical demands of jobs, growing income inequality, and the pattern of poverty increasing at older ages.

The Benefits Implications Of Recent Trends In Flexible Staff Arrangements, Susan N. Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

Workers in flexible staffing arrangements - including temporary agency, direct-hire temporary, on-call, and contract workers - are much less likely than regular, direct-hire employees to be covered by laws mandating or regulating workplace benefits. Workers in such arrangements, in turn, are much less likely to receive pension, health insurance, and other benefits on the job. This paper documents these differences in coverage by benefits regulations and differences in benefits receipt. The paper also reviews evidence on the incentives employers have to use workers in these various flexible staffing arrangements. Although reducing benefits costs is not the only reason employers use …

Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence From An Establishment Survey, Susan N. Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

This paper examines which employers use flexible staffing arrangements, why they use these arrangements, and their implications for workers and public policy, drawing on a nationally representative survey of private sector establishments. Use of flexible staffing arrangements-including temporary help agency, short-term, on-call, regular part-time, and contract workers-is widespread and two-thirds of employers believe this use will increase in the near future. Traditional reasons concerning the need to accommodate fluctuations in workload or absences in staff are the most commonly cited reasons for using all types of flexible staffing arrangements. Many employers also use agency temporaries and part-time workers to screen …

The Benefits Implications Of Recent Trends In Flexible Staffing Arrangements, Susan Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Retirement Income Policy Models, Kevin Hollenbeck

Kevin Hollenbeck

Public policymakers and program administrators often face decisions that impact the retirement incomes of individuals. An important question that these decision-makers may wish to address concerns the distributional impacts of the programmatic changes under consideration. Who (what population groups) would gain income and how much? Who would be unaffected? Who would lose and by how much? The question that this paper investigates is the extent to which computer models and associated policy analysis capability are available to provide decision makers with this kind of information. Specifically, the paper reviews a class of models that may be designated as retirement income …

Social Security And Pension Reform: International Perspectives, Marek Szczepański Editor, John A. Turner Editor

Upjohn Press

Countries around the world are reforming their social security and pension systems. International studies often focus on social security reforms in Europe and North America, and may include Latin America. Reforms, however, are also occurring in Asia and Africa, and include reforms of voluntary and employer-provided pensions as well as social security programs. This book discusses both social security and employer-provided pension reforms, as well as reforms in most regions of the world.

Washington Pension System Review, H. Allan Hunt

H. Allan Hunt

No abstract provided.

[Review Of The Book Growing Public: Social Spending And Economic Growth Since The Eighteenth Century], George R. Boyer

George R. Boyer

[Excerpt] Lindert’s discussion of the costs and benefits of the welfare state is only one part, albeit the most eye-catching part, of this wide-ranging work in comparative economic history. Volume 1, written for non-specialists, presents “The Story”; it is tailor-made for upper-level undergraduate courses in economic and social history, public policy, and welfare economics. Volume 2 presents “Further Evidence,” including the regression results that underlie the findings presented in the first volume, and eighty pages of appendices. Graduate students and scholars studying the welfare state will want to read this volume in conjunction with Volume 1. For those who want …

[Review Of The Book Retirement Income Opportunities In An Aging America: Income Levels And Adequacy], Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] The slant of this volume will not appeal to everyone. Consider the following: "During the last twenty years, the elderly's financial status has improved substantially. Today those who are over age 65 receive income from more sources and have greater financial independence than previous generations of elderly. . . . This report concludes that the elderly's income levels and sources will continue to improve during the next twenty years or more" (p. v). But what of the poverty that remains among the elderly, especially single individuals? What of the threat to real social security benefit levels? What of the …

Pension Reform: How Have Workers Fared?, Edward N. Wolff

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Lack Of Persistence Of Employee Contributions To Their 401(K) Plans May Lead To Insufficient Retirement Savings, Leslie A. Muller, John A. Turner

Upjohn Institute Policy Papers

Many workers save for retirement through 401(k) plans. This study addresses the concern that low account balances of older workers may indicate that these vehicles are not sufficient to insure adequate retirement savings. In particular, the study shows that while they are accumulating these plans, workers are not persistent in contributing, and a weak stock market exacerbates the problem.

Inertia does not seem to hold for 401(k) saving behavior. Furthermore, the investment strategy of dollar cost averaging does not seem to hold, either. Using four biennial waves of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) covering a six-year …

The Persistence Of Employee 401(K) Contributions Over A Major Stock Market Cycle: Evidence On The Limited Power Of Inertia On Savings Behavior, Leslie A. Muller, John A. Turner

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Many middle-income workers save for retirement through 401(k) plans. This study addresses the concern that low account balances of older workers may indicate that these vehicles are not sufficient to insure adequate retirement savings. In particular, the study shows that workers are not persistent (continuing once a worker has started) in contributing, and a weak stock market exacerbates the problem.
The study suggests that the concept of inertia, which is in vogue in behavioral economics, does not seem to hold for 401(k) saving behavior. Furthermore, the investment strategy of dollar cost averaging does not seem to hold, either. Using panel …

Imagining The Ideal Pension System: International Perspectives, Dana M. Muir Editor, John A. Turner Editor

Upjohn Press

Muir and Turner gather an international roster of pension experts who present what they think would be the ideal pension systems for their countries and why. Those countries include the United States, the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Poland, and Japan.

The Transformation Of The American Pension System: Was It Beneficial For Workers?, Edward N. Wolff

Upjohn Press

The share of Americans with defined contribution pension plans now exceeds the share of those with defined benefit plans. Wolff refers to this as the "great transformation" and it leads him to examine recent evidence to see whether there are winners and losers resulting from this switch away from traditional pension plans.

Pension Policy: The Search For Better Solutions, John A. Turner

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Pension Policy: The Search For Better Solutions, John A. Turner

Upjohn Press

Turner identifies the current problems facing pension policy for U.S. employer-provided pension plans and recommends solutions to those problems based on his examination of pension systems in other industrialized nations.

The Impact Of A Phased Retirement Program: A Case Study, Marta Lachowska

Marta Lachowska

No abstract provided.

Washington Pension System Review, Peter S. Barth, Heather Grob, Henry George Harder, H. Allan Hunt, Michael Silverstein

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

The purpose of this study is to analyze the incidence of Total Permanent Disability (TPD) pensions in Washington State's workers' compensation program. Concerns exist at both the legislature and in the Department of Labor and Industries as there appears to have been a sharp upturn in the number of pensions awarded since late in the 1990s. This report examines the factors that may be causally related to any upsurge in such awards. Our task is to evaluate pension incidence for both the state fund and the self-insured populations, with a view towards identifying causes of the trend in both sectors, …

La Cuantía De Las Pensiones A Medio Plazo, Sus Efectos Sobre El Sistema De Pensiones Y El Estudio De Alternativas, Rafael Muñoz De Bustillo, Fernando Esteve, Pablo De Pedraza, José-Ignacio Antón, Jaime Frades, Zufiaur José María

José-Ignacio Antón

No abstract provided.

Individual Accounts For Social Security Reform: International Perspectives On The U.S. Debate, John A. Turner

Upjohn Press

John Turner uses the documented experiences of many countries—including the U.K., Sweden, Chile, Australia, Canada, and others—and the tools of economics to analyze the public policy issues surrounding the proposed implementation of individual accounts as part of the U.S. Social Security system. The result is a book that clarifies these issues while offering direction to Social Security policymakers. Also included is a comprehensive overview of the types of defined contribution plans in use today.

Asynchronous Risk: Unemployment, Equity Markets, And Retirement Savings, Jason S. Seligman, Jeffrey Brian Wenger

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The link between unemployment and pension accumulations is conceptually straightforward; periods of unemployment lead to lower pension contributions, and thus to lower accumulations. However, impacts on accumulation may differ as a result of the timing and frequency of unemployment spells. We hypothesize that unemployment is more likely during periods in which the equities market experiences greater than average returns, largely due to a lead/lag structure of the stock and labor markets, respectively. This would imply that workers may systematically miss opportunities to purchase equities through DC plans when prices are relatively low. To test this hypothesis, we match historic stock …

Income And Influence: Social Policy In Emerging Market Economies, Ethan B. Kapstein, Branko Milanovic

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Income And Influence: Social Policy In Emerging Market Economies, Ethan B. Kapstein, Branko Milanovic

Upjohn Press

The authors study the connection between economic reform and social policy, and why such reforms failed to produce the tide needed to lift all boats in the transition economies of eastern and central Europe and of Asia.

Risk Sharing Through Social Security Retirement Income Systems: A Comparison Of Canada And The United States, John A. Turner

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence From An Establishment Survey, Susan Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

The Benefits Implications Of Recent Trends In Flexible Staff Arrangements, Susan N. Houseman

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Workers in flexible staffing arrangements - including temporary agency, direct-hire temporary, on-call, and contract workers - are much less likely than regular, direct-hire employees to be covered by laws mandating or regulating workplace benefits. Workers in such arrangements, in turn, are much less likely to receive pension, health insurance, and other benefits on the job. This paper documents these differences in coverage by benefits regulations and differences in benefits receipt. The paper also reviews evidence on the incentives employers have to use workers in these various flexible staffing arrangements. Although reducing benefits costs is not the only reason employers use …

Pay At Risk: Compensation And Employment Risk In The United States And Canada, John A. Turner Editor

Upjohn Press

The contributors to this book investigate the compensation and employment risks for U.S. and Canadian workers. They examine both wage and nonwage aspects of compensation, and whether workers in the U.S. or Canada face more job-related risks. They also seek to identify trends in risk bearing and whether they differ by country.

Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence From An Establishment Survey, Susan N. Houseman

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper examines which employers use flexible staffing arrangements, why they use these arrangements, and their implications for workers and public policy, drawing on a nationally representative survey of private sector establishments. Use of flexible staffing arrangements-including temporary help agency, short-term, on-call, regular part-time, and contract workers-is widespread and two-thirds of employers believe this use will increase in the near future. Traditional reasons concerning the need to accommodate fluctuations in workload or absences in staff are the most commonly cited reasons for using all types of flexible staffing arrangements. Many employers also use agency temporaries and part-time workers to screen …