Americans are saving less than they used to. At the same time, they are spending more years in retirement, and Social Security still has long-term financial shortfalls. The author finds that most American households must raise their saving rates considerably if they are to maintain their current...

Long gone are the days when most American workers could rely on their employers to manage their retirement savings. Today, most people handle their retirement portfolios themselves, gaining the right and responsibility to determine their own best strategies. Research on retirement planning...

Economists make extensive use of two separate descriptions of private saving behavior: the life-cycle (or overlapping generations) model, and models with intergenerational altruism. Analysis of the two frameworks is quite different, as are many of the long-run policy implications. This paper...

Remarks at the National Association for Business Economics Annual Meeting, New York City.

Before the current recession, soaring stock prices and housing values made many Americans feel well off, and thus many were lax in saving for retirement. The current financial market downturn has erased much of the previous gains, leaving many workers unprepared for retirement.

Related links: http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/region_focus/2011/q4/feature3_weblinks.cfm