This 2012 update on the funded status of state/local pensions will be one of the last two based on the Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s(GASB) old provisions, under which assets are reported on an actuarially smoothed basis, the discount rate is the long-run expected rate of return,...

Most of the attention in the wake of the financial crisis and ensuing recession has focused on state-administered pension plans. But cities often administer their own plans, and stories circulate about the perils facing Chicago, Philadelphia, Providence, and others. To assess the status of...

Using 1977-2011 data from the Current Population Survey, this paper investigates the often-repeated claim that delayed retirement by baby boomers will result in higher unemployment among the young, a claim which has been garnering increased attention from the media during the Great Recession. It...

The finances of state and local pension plans are headline news almost daily.1 Indeed, although these plans were moving toward prefunding their promised benefits, two financial crises in 10 years have thrown them seriously off course. Measured by the standards of the Government Accounting...

The 2010 Trustees Report had no surprises - Social Security still faces a modest deficit of 2% of payroll, which is newsworthy given the economic crisis. The recession has had some shorter-term effects: 1) prices are still below their 2008 levels, so beneficiaries are not expected to receive a...

The financial crisis and ensuing recession have had an enormous impact on state-administered pension plans. Funded levels declined sharply, the Annual Required Contribution (ARC) increased to make up for the fall in funding, and the percent of ARC paid declined as the bottom fell out of state...

The Census Bureau just reported a large increase in poverty in the United States. Driven by job loss and long-term unemployment, the poverty rate rose from 13.2 percent to 14.3 percent, as 3.7 million more Americans found themselves with incomes below the poverty threshold.1 Individuals aged...

State and local pensions have been headline news since the financial collapse reduced the value of their assets, leaving a substantial unfunded liability. The magnitude of that liability depends on the interest rate used to discount future benefit promises but, regardless of the assumptions,...

In the wake of the financial crisis, policymakers have been talking about shifting from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans in the public sector. Three states – Georgia, Michigan, and Utah – have taken action, joining the 10 states that had introduced some form of defined...

In July and August 2009, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR) conducted a survey to gauge three things: 1) how people were responding to the loss of their retirement assets due to the financial crisis; 2) who was responding by increasing their expected working life; and 3)...