Remarks at the Chapter 9 and Alternatives for Distressed Municipalities and States Workshop, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York City.

As of May 1988, over 8 million workers had received their pension benefits as lump-sum distributions (LSDs) when they changed jobs. In 1986 Congress imposed a 10% tax penalty on the amount of LSDs not rolled over into tax-deferred instruments. This paper examines the effects of this tax penalty...