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Accrual Measures of Pension-Related Compensation and Wealth of State and Local Government Workers

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  • David G. Lenze

    (Bureau of Economic Analysis)

Abstract

This paper develops a method to convert the normal costs and actuarial liabilities published by state and local government retirement systems for their defined benefit pension plans to measures consistent with national income accounting principles. It also standardizes the measures using a common discount rate. The method is applied to data for the years 2000 to 2006 to generate a set of national and state estimates of employer normal costs and liabilities which are then used to improve the estimates of compensation and property income in the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA). Using a 6% discount rate, our estimated liability of state and local government retirement systems is about 4% lower than the published liability for 2006 and our estimate of normal costs is about 48% higher. Adopting these estimates would add $105 billion (or about 1.0%) to personal income in 2006. Revisions to state estimates of personal income would range from a 0.7% reduction in West Virginia to a 2.3% increase in New Jersey.

Suggested Citation

  • David G. Lenze, 2009. "Accrual Measures of Pension-Related Compensation and Wealth of State and Local Government Workers," BEA Working Papers 0054, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:bea:wpaper:0054
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    File URL: https://www.bea.gov/system/files/papers/WP2009-3.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Justin Falk, 2012. "Comparing Benefits and Total Compensation in the Federal Government and the Private Sector: Working Paper 2012-04," Working Papers 42923, Congressional Budget Office.
    3. Falk Justin R., 2012. "Comparing Benefits and Total Compensation between Similar Federal and Private-Sector Workers," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-37, October.
    4. Dominique Durant & David Lenze & Marshall B. Reinsdorf, 2014. "Adding Actuarial Estimates of Defined-Benefit Pension Plans to National Accounts," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Wealth and Financial Intermediation and Their Links to the Real Economy, pages 151-203, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. repec:nbr:nberch:12836 is not listed on IDEAS

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    JEL classification:

    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook

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