This paper examines the effect of incorporating individual-level heterogeneity into default rules for retirement plan selection. We use data from a large employer that transitioned from a defined benefit (DB) plan to a defined contribution (DC) plan, offering existing employees a choice of...

Between 1995 and 2007, inflation-adjusted house prices more than doubled in some areas of the U.S. During this unprecedented boom, households spent more and reduced their saving rate. A key question is how much of the increased spending was related to rising house prices, as opposed to other...

Do “family traditions” influence bequest behavior? If an individual receives an inheritance from his parents, is he more likely to give a bequest to his children, even after controlling for the boost in wealth conferred by the inheritance? Family traditions are pertinent to a host of issues...

According to the classification in official statistics, Dutch pension plans have mainly preserved their DB character in recent years. The dominant reaction of pension funds to the fall in funding ratios at the beginning of this century has been a switch from final-pay schemes to average-wage...

Pension reform can potentially increase saving and improve incentives for labor force participation later in life. We investigate whether these effects are likely to occur and the potential size of the effects on private and total saving and on employment past age 55. Our survey of existing...

While previous economic research focuses on the financial well-being of retirees, this paper examines the determinants of overall well-being of retirees. Using data from the 2000 Health and Retirement Study, the strongest predictor of retirement well-being is the reason for entering retirement....

This paper seeks to determine the impact of the changing lives of women – increased labor force participation/earnings and reduced marriage rates – on Social Security replacement rates. First, our estimates, based on the Health and Retirement Study and Modeling Income in the Near Term, show...

That older people will need to work longer in order to ensure a secure retirement is undeniable. Social Security, the backbone of the retirement system, will not replace as much pre-retirement income in the future as it does today. Employer-sponsored pensions also involve considerably more...

Assumptions about long-term trends in international migration are an increasingly important component of the demographic projection module. Yet most official immigration projections both in the United States and abroad rely on ad-hoc assumptions based on little theory and virtually no definable...

This study is motivated by the well-documented increase in wage inequality during the 1980s and the continued high levels of inequality during the 1990s. Specifically, we examine changes in the distribution of long-run earnings and changes in economic mobility for recent cohorts. These cohorts,...