For the past three decades, there has been a significant movement away from defined benefit pension plans in the private sector toward greater use of defined contribution plans, especially 401(k) plans. In contrast, retirement plans in the public sector remain primarily defined benefit plans....

To help workers navigate the transition from work to retirement more effectively, employers have been launching phased retirement programs, which allow older employees to work part-time and receive full retirement benefits. This paper examines the experience of the phased retirement system for...

The present paper introduces a new dataset, the Rand American Life Panel (ALP), which offers several appealing features for an analysis of financial literacy and retirement planning. It allows us to evaluate financial knowledge during workers prime earning years when they are making key...

How might retirees consider deploying the retirement assets accumulated in a defined contribution pension plan? One possibility would be to purchase an immediate annuity. Another approach, called the phased withdrawal strategy in the literature, would have the retiree invest his funds and then...

We use a new panel dataset of credit card accounts to analyze how consumer responded to the 2001 Federal income tax rebates. We estimate the monthly response of credit card payments, spending, and debt, exploiting the unique, randomized timing of the rebate disbursement. We find that, on...

The retired population can be expected to make a substantial claim on the economic resources of virtually every nation. This book is geared to helping planners devise workable and efficient pension systems for Caribbean nations. It offers specific discussions of instruments, programs, and...