IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/1727.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Funding Status of Teacher Pensions: An Econometric Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Robert P. Inman

Abstract

The financing of public employee pensions has become an issue of growing public concern. This paper examines the fundinq status of teacher pension plans for the fifty states and for selected localities for the decade, 1971-1980. A pension underfunding equation based upon actuarial principles is specified and estimated using a sample of pension plans for which actuarially sound measures of underfundings are available. The ecometrically-estimated pension equationis then used to "predict" underfundings for each state and local pension plan for each year for which full pension plan data are available. The results reveal that the real dollar value of plan underfundings has risen by over 50% in the average state from 1971-1980. Strategies for funding these growing pension deficits are required.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert P. Inman, 1985. "The Funding Status of Teacher Pensions: An Econometric Approach," NBER Working Papers 1727, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1727
    Note: ME
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1727.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert C. Merton, 1981. "On the Role of Social Security as a Means for Efficient Risk-Bearing in an Economy Where Human Capital Is Not Tradeable," NBER Working Papers 0743, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Michael J. Boskin & John B. Shoven, 1984. "Concepts and Measures of Earnings Replacement During Retirement," NBER Working Papers 1360, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Ehrenberg, Ronald G, 1980. "Correlates of Underfunding of Public Sector Retirement Systems," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(3), pages 493-500, July.
    4. Feldstein, Martin S, 1976. "Perceived Wealth in Bonds and Social Security: A Comment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(2), pages 331-336, April.
    5. Arnott, Richard J. & Gersovitz, Mark, 1980. "Corporate financial structure and the funding of private pension plans," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 231-247, April.
    6. Samuelson, Paul A, 1975. "Optimum Social Security in a Life-Cycle Growth Model," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 16(3), pages 539-544, October.
    7. Dennis Epple & Katherine Schipper, 1981. "Municipal pension funding: A theory and some evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 141-178, January.
    8. Jeremy I. Bulow, 1982. "What are Corporate Pension Liabilities?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(3), pages 435-452.
    9. Smith, Robert Stewart, 1981. "Compensating Differentials for Pensions and Underfunding in the Public Sector," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(3), pages 463-468, August.
    10. Robert C. Merton, 1983. "On the Role of Social Security as a Means for Efficient Risk Sharing in an Economy Where Human Capital Is Not Tradable," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System, pages 325-358, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Daniel E. Smith, 1983. "Pensions in the American Economy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kotl83-1.
    12. Herman B. Leonard, 1984. "The Federal Civil Service Retirement System: An Analysis of its Financial Condition and Current Reform Proposals," NBER Working Papers 1258, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mitchell, Olivia S & Smith, Robert S, 1994. "Pension Funding in the Public Sector," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(2), pages 278-290, May.
    2. Boskin, Michael J. & Robinson, Marc S. & Huber, Alan M., 1987. "Government Saving, Capital Formation and Wealth in the United States, 1947-1985," CEPR Publications 244416, Stanford University, Center for Economic Policy Research.

    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. Johnson, Richard W., 1997. "Pension Underfunding and Liberal Retirement Benefits Among State and Local Government Workers," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 50(1), pages 113-42, March.
    2. Zvi Bodie & Alan J. Marcus & Robert C. Merton, 1988. "Defined Benefit versus Defined Contribution Pension Plans: What are the Real Trade-offs?," NBER Chapters, in: Pensions in the U.S. Economy, pages 139-162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Johnson, Richard W., 1997. "Pension Underfunding and Liberal Retirement Benefits Among State and Local Government Workers," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(1), pages 113-142, March.
    4. Michele Boldrin & Aldo Rustichini, 2000. "Political Equilibria with Social Security," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 3(1), pages 41-78, January.
    5. Barry R. Marks & K. K. Raman, 1988. "The effect of unfunded accumulated and projected pension obligations on governmental borrowing costs," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(2), pages 595-608, March.
    6. Michele Boldrin & Juan J. Dolado & Juan F. Jimeno & Franco Peracchi, "undated". "The future of pension systems in Europe. A reappraisal," Working Papers 99-08, FEDEA.
    7. Dirk Krueger & Felix Kubler, 2006. "Pareto-Improving Social Security Reform when Financial Markets are Incomplete!?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 737-755, June.
    8. Lans Bovenberg & Harald Uhlig, 2008. "Pension Systems and the Allocation of Macroeconomic Risk," NBER Chapters, in: NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics 2006, pages 241-344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Robert P. Inman & David J. Albright, 1987. "Central Policies for Local Debt: The Case of Teacher Pensions," NBER Working Papers 2166, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Robert M. Schwab, 1985. "Pay-As-You-Go versus Advance-Funded Public Pension Systems under Imperfect Capital Markets," Public Finance Review, , vol. 13(3), pages 269-291, July.
    11. Mulligan Casey B & Gil Ricard & Sala-i-Martin Xavier X, 2010. "Social Security and Democracy," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-46, March.
    12. Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1996. "Privatization of Social Security: How It Works and Why It Matters," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 10, pages 1-32, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Bohn, Henning, 2011. "Should public retirement plans be fully funded?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 195-219, April.
    14. BOLDRIN, Michele & RUSTICHINI, Aldo, 1994. "Equilibria with Social Security," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 1994060, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    15. Kemnitz, Alexander & Wigger, Berthold U., 2000. "Growth and social security: the role of human capital," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 673-683, November.
    16. Herman B. Leonard, 1987. "Investing in the Defense Work Force: The Debt and Structure of Military Pensions," NBER Chapters, in: Public Sector Payrolls, pages 47-78, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Douglas K. Pearce & V. Vance Roley, 1987. "Firm Characteristics, Unanticipated Inflation, and Stock Returns," NBER Working Papers 2366, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Kolmar, Martin & Meier, Volker, 2012. "Intragenerational externalities and intergenerational transfers," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(4), pages 531-548, October.
    19. Jeremy I. Bulow & Myron S. Scholes & Peter Menell, 1983. "Economic Implications of ERISA," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System, pages 37-56, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Wagener, Andreas, 2004. "On intergenerational risk sharing within social security schemes," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 181-206, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nbr:nberwo:1727. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.