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SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH NETWORK
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, COMPENSATION & PENSION LAW ABSTRACTS
Sponsored by Pension Governance, LLC
Vol. 8, No. 45: December 20, 2007
Editor: PAMELA J. PERUN
Policy Director, Aspen Institute - Initiative on
Financial Security
PAMELA@PLANETNOW.COM
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Topic of This Issue:
Saving and Spending
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
"New Age Thinking: Alternative Ways of Measuring Age, Their
Relationship to Labor Force Participation, Government Policies
and GDP"
JOHN B. SHOVEN
Stanford University - Department of Economics, National
Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
"Effects of Individual Development Accounts on Asset Purchases
and Saving Behavior: Evidence from a Controlled Experiment"
EMIL APOSTOLOV
The Brookings Institution
RHIANNON PATTERSON
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
GREGORY MILLS
Abt Associates, Inc.
WILLIAM G. GALE
Brookings Institution
MICHAEL D. ERIKSEN
Syracuse University
GARY V. ENGELHARDT
Syracuse University - Center for Policy Research,
Dartmouth College - Department of Economics, National
Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
"Understanding Pensions: Cognitive Function, Numerical Ability
and Retirement Saving"
JAMES BANKS
Institute for Fiscal Studies & University College
ZOË OLDFIELD
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
"The Trajectory of Wealth in Retirement"
DAVID A. LOVE
Williams College - Department of Economics
MICHAEL PALUMBO
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve - Flow of
Funds Section, University of Houston - Department of
Economics
PAUL A. SMITH
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
"IRA Assets and Contributions, 2006"
CRAIG COPELAND
Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)
"Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation"
MAARTEN VAN ROOIJ
Bank of the Netherlands - Research Department
ANNAMARIA LUSARDI
Dartmouth College - Department of Economics, National
Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
ROB ALESSIE
University of Utrecht - Utrecht School of Economics,
Free University of Amsterdam - Department of Economics
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"New Age Thinking: Alternative Ways of Measuring Age, Their
Relationship to Labor Force Participation, Government Policies
and GDP"
NBER Working Paper No. W13476
Contact: JOHN B. SHOVEN
Stanford University - Department of Economics,
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Email: shoven@stanford.edu
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=15712
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1020902
ABSTRACT: The current practice of measuring age as
years-since-birth, both in common practice and in the law, rather
than alternative measures reflecting a person's stage in the
lifecycle distorts important behavior such as retirement, saving,
and the discussion of dependency ratios. Two alternative measures
of age are explored: mortality risk and remaining life
expectancy. With these alternative measures, the huge wave of
elderly forecast for the first half of this century doesn't look
like a huge wave at all. By conventional 65+ standards, the
fraction of the population that is elderly will grow by about 66
percent. However, the fraction of the population that is above a
mortality rate that corresponds to 65+ today will grow by only 20
percent. Needless to say, the aging of the society is a lot less
dramatic with the alternative mortality-based age measures. In a
separate application of age measurement, I examine the
consequences of stabilizing labor force participation by age with
alternative age definitions. If labor force participation were to
remain as it is today with respect to remaining life expectancy
(i.e. if the length of retirement stayed where it is today)
rather than labor force participation remaining fixed by
conventionally-defined age, then there would be 9.6 percent more
total labor supply by 2050 in the U.S. This additional labor
supply could help finance entitlement programs amongst other
things. GDP would be between seven and ten percent higher by 2050
if retirement lengths stabilize. Several policies are examined
that would encourage longer work careers.
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"Effects of Individual Development Accounts on Asset Purchases
and Saving Behavior: Evidence from a Controlled Experiment"
Author: EMIL APOSTOLOV
The Brookings Institution
Email: eapostolov@brookings.edu
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=648968
Co-Author: RHIANNON PATTERSON
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
Email: pattersonr@gao.gov
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=482547
Co-Author: GREGORY MILLS
Abt Associates, Inc.
Email: greg_mills@abtassoc.com
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=648965
Contact: WILLIAM G. GALE
Brookings Institution
Email: WGALE@BROOKINGS.EDU
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=51797
Co-Author: MICHAEL D. ERIKSEN
Syracuse University
Email: meriksen@maxwell.syr.edu
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=446383
Co-Author: GARY V. ENGELHARDT
Syracuse University - Center for Policy Research,
Dartmouth College - Department of Economics,
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Email: gvengelh@maxwell.syr.edu
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=16147
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1031362
ABSTRACT: We evaluate the first controlled field experiment on
Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Including their own
contributions and matching fund, treatment group members in the
Tulsa, Oklahoma program could accumulate $6,750 for home purchase
or $4,500 for other qualified uses. Almost all treatment group
members opened accounts, but many withdrew all funds for
unqualified purposes. Among renters at the beginning of the
experiment, the IDA increased homeownership rates after 4 years
by 7-11 percentage points and reduced non-retirement financial
assets by $700-$1000. The IDA had almost no other discernable
effect on other subsidized assets, overall wealth or poverty
rates.
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"Understanding Pensions: Cognitive Function, Numerical Ability
and Retirement Saving"
Fiscal Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2007
Contact: JAMES BANKS
Institute for Fiscal Studies & University College
Email: J.W.BANKS@UCL.AC.UK
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=82390
Co-Author: ZOË OLDFIELD
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
Email: zoe_o@ifs.org.uk
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=424810
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1061829
ABSTRACT: In a world of declining state pension provision, it is
becoming increasingly important that individuals are able to
understand the financial choices they face and can choose savings
products, portfolios and contribution rates accordingly. In this
paper, we look at numerical ability and other dimensions of
cognitive function in a sample of older adults in England and
examine the extent to which these abilities are correlated with
various measures of wealth and retirement saving outcomes. As
well as finding that relatively large fractions of the older
population can be seen to have low levels of numeracy, we show
that numeracy levels are strongly correlated with measures of
retirement saving and investment portfolios, even when
controlling for other dimensions of cognitive ability as well as
educational attainment. Numeracy is also related to knowledge and
understanding of pension arrangements, and with perceived
financial security. In the short run, there may be a role for
targeting simple retirement planning information at low-numeracy,
low-education groups; a longer-run goal for retirement saving
policy might be to improve numeracy levels more generally.
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"The Trajectory of Wealth in Retirement"
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Research
Paper Series - FEDS Papers
Author: DAVID A. LOVE
Williams College - Department of Economics
Email: dlove@williams.edu
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=548346
Co-Author: MICHAEL PALUMBO
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve - Flow of
Funds Section, University of Houston - Department
of Economics
Email: michael.g.palumbo@frb.gov
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=34492
Contact: PAUL A. SMITH
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Email: paul.a.smith@frb.gov
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=341316
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1055641
ABSTRACT: As the baby boomers begin to retire, a great deal
remains unknown about how households dissave at the end of life.
In this paper, we investigate spend-down behavior in old age by
using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study to trace
the evolution of what we call "annualized comprehensive wealth,"
a measure of the total resources available per expected year of
life within households. We find that the median household's
wealth declines more slowly than its remaining life expectancy,
so that annualized wealth actually rises with age. Comparing
these empirical patterns with simulations from several life cycle
models of consumption and wealth, we find that the patterns are
best explained by a model that accounts for uncertain longevity,
uncertain medical expenses, and bequests. The models that include
only a subset of these factors generally do not explain the
timing or the extent of the increase in annualized comprehensive
wealth we observe in the data.
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"IRA Assets and Contributions, 2006"
EBRI Notes, Vol. 28, No. 12, December 2007
Contact: CRAIG COPELAND
Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)
Email: COPELAND@EBRI.ORG
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=255137
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1071928
ABSTRACT: This paper examines the level of - and trends in - IRA
assets. In addition, it includes the most recent Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) data on the distribution of assets and
contributions to IRAs by IRA type, thereby permitting analysis of
the assets and contribution levels of traditional (deductible and
nondeductible) IRAs, Roth IRAs (nondeductible contributions and
tax-free withdrawals), and other IRAs (employment-based SEPs and
SIMPLEs).
The PDF for the above title, published in the December 2007 issue
of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another December
2007 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: Income of the Elderly
Population Age 65 and Over, 2006.
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"Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation"
NBER Working Paper No. W13565
Contact: MAARTEN VAN ROOIJ
Bank of the Netherlands - Research Department
Email: m.c.j.van.rooij@dnb.nl
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=450313
Co-Author: ANNAMARIA LUSARDI
Dartmouth College - Department of Economics,
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Email: annamaria.lusardi@dartmouth.edu
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=53048
Co-Author: ROB ALESSIE
University of Utrecht - Utrecht School of
Economics, Free University of Amsterdam -
Department of Economics
Email: R.Alessie@econ.uu.nl
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=147721
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1024979
ABSTRACT: Individuals are increasingly put in charge of their
financial security after retirement. Moreover, the supply of
complex financial products has increased considerably over the
years. However, we still have little or no information about
whether individuals have the financial knowledge and skills to
navigate this new financial environment. To better understand
financial literacy and its relation to financial decision-making,
we have devised two special modules for the DNB Household Survey.
We have designed questions to measure numeracy and basic
knowledge related to the working of inflation and interest rates,
as well as questions to measure more advanced financial knowledge
related to financial market instruments (stocks, bonds, and
mutual funds). We evaluate the importance of financial literacy
by studying its relation to the stock market: Are more
financially knowledgeable individuals more likely to hold stocks?
To assess the direction of causality, we make use of questions
measuring financial knowledge before investing in the stock
market. We find that, while the understanding of basic economic
concepts related to inflation and interest rate compounding is
far from perfect, it outperforms the limited knowledge of stocks
and bonds, the concept of risk diversification, and the working
of financial markets. We also find that the measurement of
financial literacy is very sensitive to the wording of survey
questions. This provides additional evidence for limited
financial knowledge. Finally, we report evidence of an
independent effect of financial literacy on stock market
participation: Those who have low financial literacy are
significantly less likely to invest in stocks.