In the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession, the health of state and local pension plans has emerged as a front burner policy issue. Elected officials, academic experts, and the media alike have pointed to funding shortfalls with alarm, expressing concern that pension promises are unsustainable or will squeeze out other pressing government priorities. A few local governments have even filed for bankruptcy, with pensions cited as a major cause. Alicia H. Munnell draws on both her practical experience and her research to provide a broad perspective on the challenge of state and local pensions. She shows that the story is big and complicated and cannot be viewed through a narrow prism such as accounting methods or the role of unions. By examining the diversity of the public plan universe, Munnell debunks the notion that all plans are in trouble. In fact, she finds that while a few plans are basket cases, many are functioning reasonably well. Munnell's analysis concludes that the plans in serious trouble need a major overhaul. But even the relatively healthy plans face three challenges ahead: an excessive concentration of plan assets in equities; the risk that steep benefit cuts for new hires will harm workforce quality; and the constraints plans face in adjusting future benefits for current employees. Here, Munnell proposes solutions that preserve the main strengths of state and local pensions while promoting needed reforms.

In his 1998 State of the Union address, President Clinton challenged Americans to a public debate about how to fix the long-term financial problems of Social Security. This annual volume of the National Academy of Social Insurance provides a framework for that debate. Competing reform proposals reflect contrasting views about the nature of the Social Security problem and how to solve it. This book examines issues about privatization, national savings and economic growth, the political risks and realities in reforms, lessons from private pensions developments in the United States, and the efforts of other advanced industrial countries to adapt their old-age pensions to an aging population. It also poses philosophical arguments about collective versus individual responsibility and the implications of market risks and political risks for stable and secure retirement income policy. The contributors are Theo Angelis, Michael J. Boskin, Peter A. Diamond, John Geanakoplos, Hugh Heclo, Karen C. Holden, Howell Jackson, Olivia Mitchell, Dallas L. Salisbury, Lawrence H. Thompson, Kent Weaver, and Stephen P. Zeldes. Copublished with the National Academy of Social Insurance

From a modest beginning in 1935 to an income replacement scheme for workers in commerce and industry, the social security system has grown to cover 90 percent of working Americans. It now pays $78 billion a year in benefits and is obligated to pay $4 trillion in future retirement benefits to workers now covered. With a projected tax rate of 30 percent of gross wages by the year 2050 to meet its obligations under current law, the system, in the author's words, is at ""the most crucial juncture of its forty-year life.""This comprehensive review and analysis, the thirteenth in the Brookings series of Studies in Social Economics, discusses social security in relation to other sources of retirement income and clarifies its financing problem, benefit structure, and ambivalent goals. It deals with two main financing questions. First, will the payroll tax yield the revenue needed to pay benefits as the retired population rises as a fraction of the working population? Second, is the regressive social security tax really the best source of revenue for a system with welfare components such as the minimum benefit and dependents' benefits? Though such benefits are viewed as progressive, they are not paid according to need. They meet neither the income redistribution requirements nor the individual equity goals of the social security program. The author provides a comprehensive account of the benefit structure and clarifies its relation not only to the basic goals of social security but also to the country's three-tiered system of income security. She offers recommendations for eliminating ""an irrational and correctable feature of the benefit formula,"" for lowering the dependency ratio, and, most important, for a definition of goals.

Daily headlines warn American workers that their retirement years may be far from golden. The main components of the retirement income system --Social Security and employer-provided pensions and health insurance --are in decline while the amount of income needed for a comfortable retirement continues to rise.

In "Working Longer," Alicia Munnell and Steven Sass suggest a simple solution to this problem: postponing retirement by two to four years. By following their advice, the average worker retiring in 2030 can be as well off as today's retirees. Implementing this solution on a national scale, however, may not be simple.

"Working Longer" investigates the prospects for moving the average retirement age from 63, the current figure, to 66. Munnell and Sass ask whether future generations will be healthy enough to work beyond the current retirement age and whether older men and women want to work. They examine companies' incentives to employ older works and ask what government can do to promote continued participation in the workforce. Finally, they consider the challenge of ensuring a secure retirement for low-wage workers and those who are unable to continue to work.

The retirement system faces very real challenges. But together, workers, employers, and the government can keep this vital piece of the American dream alive.

Despite the recent downturn in the stock market, the 1990s boom and the shift to defined contribution plans mean that more individuals will have significant wealth upon retirement. How they use that wealth will determine not only their own well-being, but also the living standards of their children, the resources available to philanthropies, and the level of investment capital in the economy. This volume explores the reasons why people save, how they decide to allocate their wealth once they retire, and how givers select their beneficiaries. It also assesses the extent to which the estate tax and annuitization of retirement wealth affects the amount and nature of wealth transfers. Finally, it looks at the impact of wealth transfers--first on the amount of aggregate saving and capital accumulation, and then on the distribution of wealth among households. Several conclusions emerge. First, gifts and bequests are important; they may account for about half of total wealth in America. Second, rich people make most of the wealth transfers. They are thoughtful about how much they pay in taxes and how they dispose of their wealth. They care about philanthropic causes and view their charitable contributions as more than a way to avoid paying estate taxes. Third, most nonrich people probably have some lexicographic preferences about the disposition of their wealth; they want to ensure they have adequate resources to take care of their own needs, and if money is left over, they would like it to go to their children. Fourth, little support has emerged for the pure altruistic model of bequests. Fifth, institutions matter. In the case of the rich, the estate tax probably reduces saving and increases bequests to charity. In the case of the nonrich, the shift to defined contribution plans will at a minimum mean that they have more wealth in their hands when they die, and therefore they will leave larger accidental bequests. It might also increase their interest in leaving an estate for their heirs. Saving and bequest behavior remains a fertile ground for future research. Major differences of opinion remain on such important issues as the effect of bequests on the distribution of wealth. The contributors to this volume provide a summary of existing knowledge, push the debate forward, and link topics in a unique and comprehensive way. At the same time, they make clear that many questions remain unresolved about the motives for and effects of wealth transfers.

This book, part of the Studies in Social Economics series, examines old age pensions in the United States. Alicia H. Munnell explores the factors that have influenced the growth of private pension plans.

The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income is the only comprehensive review available of the latest research, policy-related tools, analytical methods and techniques, and major theoretical frameworks and principles of pension and retirement income. Featuring over forty contributions from leading academic and professional experts, the handbook draws on research from a range of academic disciplines to reflect on the implications for current and future provision of pension and retirement income of demographic ageing, the changing financial circumstances of nation states, and globalization. An indispensable desk reference for researchers and practitioners in the area, it is also essential for policymakers and those with broad interests which include this very important area. Contributors: William C. Apgar, Camila Arza, Anthony Asher, Vickie L. Bajtelsmit, Armando Barrientos, Rob Bauer, Gary Burtless, John Y. Campbell, Gordon L. Clark, Adam Creighton, E Philip Davis, Johan J. De Deken, Zhu Xiao Di, Richard Disney, Bernhard Ebbinghaus, Robin Ellison, Ewald Engelen, Gosta Esping-Andersen, Teresa Ghilarducci, Tryggvi Thor Herbertsson, Roy P.M.M. Hoevenaars, Tony Hope, Yu-Wei Hu, Paul Johnson, Andre Laboul, Florence Legros, David McCarthy, Warren McGillivray, Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Marilyn Moon, Alicia H. Munnell, John Myles, David Neumark, Naohiro Ogawa, J. Michael Orszag, Hanam S. Phang, John Piggott, Eduard Ponds, James Poterba, Neha Sand, Steven Sass, Julian Savulescu, Tom B.M. Steenkamp, Annika Sunden, Noriyuki Takayama, Patricia Thane, Ian Tonks, Bart van Riel, Steven F. Venti, Luis M. Viceira, Noel Whiteside, Geoffrey Whittington, David A. Wise, and Juan Yermo.