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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Finance

University of Massachusetts Boston

New England Journal of Public Policy

Journal

2007

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Why Not A Dollar?, Evelyn Murphy Mar 2007

Why Not A Dollar?, Evelyn Murphy

New England Journal of Public Policy

Statisticians point out that women do not yet have quite as many years’ experience in the workforce as men have. It’s true that for the generation that began working in the 1960s, fewer women than men have a steady forty or fifty years of on-the-job experience. So maybe there should be a gap of a few pennies (at most!) to reflect that slight disadvantage. But not 23 cents’ worth! Social scientists hedge their conclusions about what causes that broad gap with disclaimers. They acknowledge that biases exist in their measurements. They admit that they cannot say for sure that differences …


Rethinking Retirement Policy In Massachusetts, Ellen A. Bruce Mar 2007

Rethinking Retirement Policy In Massachusetts, Ellen A. Bruce

New England Journal of Public Policy

Women are significantly poorer than men in old age. One major cause of women’s disproportional poverty is retirement income policy that bases pensions and savings incentives on earned income. This paper describes the structure of our retirement policies and argues that some policies should be implemented that are not associated with earned income as a way to both support women’s caregiving roles and insure their economic well-being in old age.