IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijecac/v7y2016i1p27-44.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An examination of US state pensions by total state expenditures, state budget deficit and red v. blue state

Author

Listed:
  • Don H. Chamberlain
  • L. Murphy Smith
  • Randall B. Bunker

Abstract

Pensions are important to government employees. In the USA, some states fund almost 100% of the present value of future pension obligations; while in other states, the funding is substantially lacking. Results of this study show that states with lower state expenditures per capita, relative to states with higher expenditures, have provided better funding of their state pensions. States with lower budget deficits, relative to states with higher budget deficits, paid a significantly higher percent of annual required contributions. This suggests that states that are more fiscally conservative (lower budget deficit) do a better job of making required annual contributions to their state pensions. The red (Republican) states paid a higher proportion of required annual contributions than blue (Democrat) states, 90 versus 84%, respectively; but this difference was not statistically significant. All states have an ethical responsibility to meet the pension obligations owed to their state government employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Don H. Chamberlain & L. Murphy Smith & Randall B. Bunker, 2016. "An examination of US state pensions by total state expenditures, state budget deficit and red v. blue state," International Journal of Economics and Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(1), pages 27-44.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijecac:v:7:y:2016:i:1:p:27-44
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=76748
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luciano Fanti & Luca Gori, 2012. "PAYG Pensions and Economic Cycles," Public Finance Review, , vol. 40(2), pages 240-269, March.
    2. Nora Lustig & Carola Pessino, 2014. "Social Spending and Income Redistribution in Argentina during the 2000s: The Increasing Role of Noncontributory Pensions," Public Finance Review, , vol. 42(3), pages 304-325, May.
    3. Kathy Hayes & Shawna Grosskopf, 1985. "Measuring the Welfare Loss of Pension Mandates: A Methodology and Example," Public Finance Review, , vol. 13(1), pages 47-62, January.
    4. Rauh, Joshua D., 2010. "Are State Public Pensions Sustainable? Why the Federal Government Should Worry About State Pension Liabilities," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(3), pages 585-601, September.
    5. Thomas J. Fitzpatrick & Amy B. Monahan, 2012. "Who’s afraid of good governance? State fiscal crises, public pension underfunding, and the resistance to governance reform," Working Papers (Old Series) 1223, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    6. Frank A. Sloan & Killard W. Adamache, 1986. "Taxation and the Growth of Nonwage Compensation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 14(2), pages 115-137, April.
    7. Helmut Seitz & Gerhard Kempkes, 2007. "Fiscal Federalism and Demography," Public Finance Review, , vol. 35(3), pages 385-413, May.
    8. Robert Novy‐Marx & Joshua Rauh, 2011. "Public Pension Promises: How Big Are They and What Are They Worth?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(4), pages 1211-1249, August.
    9. Dale Belman & John S. Heywood, 1997. "Changes in the Relative Provision of Public-Sector Pensions," Public Finance Review, , vol. 25(4), pages 426-441, July.
    10. Richard H. Mattoon, 2007. "Issues facing state and local government pensions," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 31(Q III), pages 2-32.
    11. Robert Novy-Marx & Joshua D. Rauh, 2009. "The Liabilities and Risks of State-Sponsored Pension Plans," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 191-210, Fall.
    12. Giertz, J. Fred & Papke, Leslie E., 2007. "Public Pension Plans: Myths and Realities for State Budgets," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 60(2), pages 305-323, June.
    13. Jeffrey R. Brown & David W. Wilcox, 2009. "Discounting State and Local Pension Liabilities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 538-542, May.
    14. William Trainor & Carolyn Rochelle, 2008. "Funding Status Projections for Southern Public Teaching Pension Plans," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 36(1), pages 77-87, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohan, Nancy & Zhang, Ting, 2014. "An analysis of risk-taking behavior for public defined benefit pension plans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 403-419.
    2. Mitchell, O.S. & Piggott, J., 2016. "Workplace-Linked Pensions for an Aging Demographic," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 865-904, Elsevier.
    3. Sutirtha Bagchi, 2013. "The Effects of Political Competition on the Funding and Generosity of Public-Sector Pension Plans," 2013 Papers pba941, Job Market Papers.
    4. Klaus Kaier & Christoph Müller, 2015. "New figures on unfunded public pension entitlements across Europe: concept, results and applications," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(4), pages 865-895, November.
    5. Robert Novy-Marx & Joshua D. Rauh, 2012. "Fiscal Imbalances and Borrowing Costs: Evidence from State Investment Losses," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 182-213, May.
    6. Lutz, Byron & Sheiner, Louise, 2014. "The fiscal stress arising from state and local retiree health obligations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 130-146.
    7. Christian Dippel, 2019. "Political Parties Do Matter in U.S. Cities ... For Their Unfunded Pensions," NBER Working Papers 25601, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Godbout, Luc & Trudel, Yves & St-Cerny, Suzie, 2013. "Le régime de rentes du Québec : le rendement différencié selon l’année de prise de la retraite de 1968 jusqu’en 2056," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 89(2), pages 89-113, Juin.
    9. Byron Lutz & Louise Sheiner, 2013. "The Fiscal Stress Arising from State and Local Retiree Health Obligations," NBER Chapters, in: State and Local Health Plans for Active and Retired Public Employees, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Bagchi, Sutirtha & Naughton, James P., 2021. "Public-sector pension plans and the discount rate assumption: The role of political incentives," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    11. Robert Novy-Marx & Joshua D. Rauh, 2012. "The Revenue Demands of Public Employee Pension Promises," NBER Working Papers 18489, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Grey Gordon & Pablo Guerrón-Quintana, 2021. "Public Debt, Private Pain: Regional Borrowing, Default, and Migration," Working Paper 21-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    13. Dashle Kelley, 2014. "The political economy of unfunded public pension liabilities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 21-38, January.
    14. Anzia, Sarah F. & Moe, Terry M., 2016. "Interest Groups on the Inside: The Governance of Public Pension Funds," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt8c82g4hf, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    15. Robert L. Clark & Lee A. Craig & John Sabelhaus, 2011. "State and Local Retirement Plans in the United States," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13685.
    16. Michaelides, Alexander & Papakyriakou, Panayiotis & Milidonis, Andreas, 2019. "Corporate Pension Plan Funding Levels and Pension Assumptions," CEPR Discussion Papers 13591, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Anantharaman, Divya & Henderson, Darren, 2021. "Contrasting the information demands of equity- and debt-holders: Evidence from pension liabilities," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2).
    18. Robert Novy-Marx & Joshua D. Rauh, 2012. "Linking Benefits to Investment Performance in US Public Pension Systems," NBER Working Papers 18491, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Lekniūtė, Zina & Beetsma, Roel & Ponds, Eduard, 2019. "U.S. municipal yields and unfunded state pension liabilities," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 15-32.
    20. Kim, Dongwoo & Koedel, Cory & Xiang, P. Brett, 2021. "The trade-off between pension costs and salary expenditures in the public sector," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 151-168, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijecac:v:7:y:2016:i:1:p:27-44. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=357 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.