Defined benefit (DB) pension plans incentivize "salary spiking," where sharp increases in pay are leveraged into significantly higher levels of retirement compensation. While egregious instances of salary spiking occasionally make headlines, there is little guidance on the definition of salary-spiking behavior or understanding of its…

Defined benefit (DB) pension systems determine the size of pension payments using an employee's "final average salary". Thus, employees enrolled in DB pension systems face an incentive to "salary spike" -- strategically increase late career pensionable compensation -- to increase their retirement income. This is an important…

Years of irresponsible budgeting practices have left the Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) almost $12 billion in debt. Without significant reforms, Louisiana's pension problems are likely to get worse, with further negative consequences for workers and schools. This report shows that schools participating in the TRSL already must…

In "Market-Based Pay Reform for Public School Teachers"--a paper presented at the National Center on Performance Incentives research to policy conference in February--Michael Podgursky, professor of economics at the University of Missouri, examines the effects and unintended consequences of the current compensation system for teachers in…

The retirement behavior of Pennsylvania public school teachers in 1997-98 and 1998-99, a period when state early retirement incentives were temporarily increased, is modeled using a choice framework that emphasizes both pecuniary and nonpecuniary factors of the retirement decision under a defined benefit retirement plan. We find each to have large…

A set of long-term finance principles dealing with student fees, community services, and interdistrict attendance was presented to the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges for adoption. It was recommended that the Board: (1) oppose any student tuition charges for credit instruction and for non-credit instruction in specified…

The 15th volume of the "Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions" bibliography is intended to continue as a major research tool for those involved in either the study of or the practice of collective bargaining in higher education. It, along with the other volumes, documents the historical development and growth of collective…