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Who Benefits from Pension Enhancements?

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Abstract

During the late 1990s public pension funds across the United States accrued large actuarial surpluses. The seemingly flush conditions of the pension funds led legislators in most states to substantially improve retirement benefits for public workers, including teachers. In this study we examine the benefit enhancements to the teacher pension system in Missouri. These enhancements resulted in large windfall gains for teachers who were close to retirement when the legislation was enacted. By contrast, novice teachers, and teachers who had not yet entered the labor force, were made worse off. The reason is that front-end contribution rates have been raised for current teachers to offset past liabilities accrued from the enhancements. Other things equal, the teaching profession in Missouri is now less appealing for young teachers as a result of the pension enhancements.

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  • Cory Koedel & Shawn Ni & Michael Podgursky, 2012. "Who Benefits from Pension Enhancements?," Working Papers 1207, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 08 Jun 2012.
    • Handle: RePEc:umc:wpaper:1207
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    Cited by:

    1. Dongwoo Kim & Cory Koedel & Wei Kong & Shawn Ni & Michael Podgursky & Weiwei Wu, 2021. "Pensions and Late-Career Teacher Retention," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 16(1), pages 42-65, Winter.
    2. Shawn Ni & Michael Podgursky, 2016. "How Teachers Respond to Pension System Incentives: New Estimates and Policy Applications," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(4), pages 1075-1104.
    3. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    4. Morrill, Melinda Sandler & Westall, John, 2019. "Social security and retirement timing: evidence from a national sample of teachers," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 549-564, October.
    5. Ni, Shawn & Podgursky, Michael & Wang, Xiqian, 2022. "Teacher pension enhancements and staffing in an urban school district," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 613-633, October.
    6. Shawn Ni & Michael Podgursky & Xiqian Wang, 2022. "Teacher Pension Plan Incentives, Retirement Decisions, and Workforce Quality," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(1), pages 272-303.
    7. 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.
    8. Wei Kong & Shawn Ni & Michael Podgursky & Weiwei Wu, 2018. "Pension Enhancements and Teacher Retirement Behavior," Working Papers 1814, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    9. Matthew M. Chingos & Martin R. West, 2015. "Which Teachers Choose a Defined Contribution Pension Plan? Evidence from the Florida Retirement System," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(2), pages 193-222, March.
    10. repec:umc:wpaper:1310 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Ben Backes & Ben Backes & Dan Goldhaberb & Cyrus Grout & Cory Koedel & Shawn Ni & Michael Podgursky & P. Brett Xiang & Zeyu Xu, 2015. "Benefit or Burden? On the Intergenerational Inequity of Teacher Pension Plans," Working Papers 1517, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised Apr 2016.
    12. Cory Koedel & P. Brett Xiang, 2017. "Pension Enhancements and the Retention of Public Employees," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(2), pages 519-551, March.
    13. Kim, Dongwoo, 2020. "Worker retirement responses to pension incentives: Do they respond to pension wealth?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 365-385.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    pension; pension risk; defined-contribution pension; teacher pension; teacher pension risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

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