This study investigates the risk inherent in defined contribution (DC) pension plans on an individual and aggregate basis, based on U.S. data. Our aim is to gain insight into the consequences of a DC pension scheme becoming the predominant pillar of retirement income for an entire society. Using the stochastic simulated output of a DC flexible age-of-retirement model, we first determine the opt...

• SIPP data and retirement plan coverage—This Issue Brief focuses on a critical factor in retirement security: the presence of income or assets from an employment-based retirement plan. It is the third in a series of EBRI publications based on the Retirement and Pension Plan Coverage Topical Module of the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which has a wealth of data on work...

This paper provides new insights into the effect of the widespread transition from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension plans on employee mobility. Pension plans may affect employee mobility both through an “incentive effect,” where the bundle of benefit characteristics, such as vesting rules, relative liquidity and the risk/return tradeoff affect turnover directly, and a “...

Vesting among full-time private sector employees has increased dramatically over the past two decades. With further increases expected, it seems likely that almost all workers covered by a pension plan will eventually receive some kind of benefit. Coverage, however, remains a problem. According to the most recently available data, only 46 percent of full-time private employees in 1988 were cove...