This paper studies how prefunding public pensions can improve policy outcomes when short-sighted governments cannot commit. We focus on sustainable plans, where optimal nonlinear pensions are not reneged on by sequential governments. Prefunding pensions is a commitment mechanism. It implies...

This chapter documents the substantial decline in traditional sources of longevity insurance, and shows that published statistics on the individual annuity market greatly overstate its size and growth. It considers whether the decline in annuitization rates is cause for concern. It then...

This study investigated how immigrant status and life expectancy in the country of origin relate to variations in retirement savings among working age women in the U.S. Specifically, utilizing the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort data, this study compared native-born Americans,...

Many quantitative empirical studies of retirement preparedness find that a substantial number of US households face a potential financial crisis at some point in the future. This monograph provides a critical survey of the most important and best-known of these studies, and it also examines the...