In this article, we combine the extensive literature on the analysis of life-course trajectories as sequences with the literature on causal inference and propose a new matching approach to investigate the causal effect of the timing of life-course events on subsequent outcomes. Our matching approach takes into account pre-event confounders that…

Most private sector employees have access to defined contribution retirement plans while public sector employees often may choose defined benefit or defined contribution plans. This research utilized a survey of faculty to analyze retirement plan satisfaction. Advice from a financial planner was positively associated with satisfaction with…

Swiss society is ageing. At the same time, life expectancy is increasing. With most workers retiring around age 65, time in retirement is growing and the ratio of retirees to employees is set to soar. These developments bring a range of opportunities but will likely weigh on growth in GDP per capita and increase public spending. They may also…

This report examines how the two global mega-trends of population ageing and rising inequalities have been developing and interacting, both within and across generations. Taking a life-course perspective the report shows how inequalities in education, health, employment and earnings compound, resulting in large differences in lifetime earnings…

Purpose: As part of an ongoing effort to analyze the distributional implications of potential policy reforms to the U.S. Social Security system, we consider the widely discussed reform of earnings sharing. Such an approach has been viewed as a way to "update" Social Security's family benefits based on marital status and as a means to…

After a long decline, the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of older men in the United States leveled off in the 1980s, and began to increase in the late 1990s. We examine how changes in Social Security rules affected these trends. We attribute only a small portion of the decline from the 1960s-80s to the increasing generosity of Social…

Coordinating the two sources of retirement income--private pensions and Social Security--tends to lower employer costs and result in private pensions that replace a larger percentage of preretirement income for higher-paid workers. (Author/SK)

Forty percent of private pension participants had plans providing benefit increases for retirees during 1978-1981. Increases were usually less than half the rise in the Consumer Price Index. (SK)

This article examines the personal savings rates required to provide an average worker with adequate retirement funds. The influence of (1) various definitions of adequacy, (2) inflation, and (3) economic growth on the magnitude of the retirement preparation task are examined. With this perspective, the current roles played by the social security…

This booklet was written to help readers understand how the Retirement Equity Act of 1984 makes it easier for both women and men to collect retirement benefits under private pension plans. Since women have had special problems in the pension area, it emphasizes how the retirement law works to their advantage by preventing loss of coverage during…

Today, the work force is employed in different industries, retiring earlier, and living longer, factors not always considered in design of retirement benefits. Changes in pension plans need to recognize increasing job mobility, inflation over a longer retirement period, and trends in personal savings. (SK)

Purpose: We examine the methodological and economic policy implications of three operationalizations of retirement migration. Design and Methods: We compared the traditional age-based definition of retirement migration and two retirement-based definitions, based on degree of labor-force participation and retirement income, by using the 2000 U.S.…

This document contains 4 charts and 15 tables describing the pension coverage of workers and the income of retirees in the United States as of 1984. Data were gathered through the fourth wave topical module to the 1984 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, conducted from September through December of 1984. The prevalence of…

A life cycle perspective is used in this study to develop and test a model suggesting that events occuring early in the worker's life, and often beyond his control (e.g., choice of parents), influence the control over labor force withdrawal and the retirement incomes of very early retirees. (CT)

This report examines legislation proposed by the Nixon administration to (1) make available to employed workers a new type of personal retirement plan having tax-deferral advantages, (2) apply pre-retirement vesting requirements to the private pension system, and (3) broaden tax-deferred retirement plans presently available to the self-employed…