Resources

  • Peaks, Cliffs, and Valleys

    This paper illustrates powerful “pull-push” incentives in Ohio, Arkansas, Missouri, California, and Massachusetts and shows the patterns of pension wealth accumulation over teachers’ careers, patterns that feature dramatic peaks, cliffs, and valleys that can greatly distort work decisions for no compelling public policy purpose.
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  • "But the Pension Fund Was Just Sitting There"

    Teacher pensions pose two challenges. The first challenge is that political incentives invite irresponsible fiscal stewardship, as public officials make outsized commitments to employees. The second is that incentives hinder modernization, as policymakers avoid the politically perilous task of altering plans ill-suited to attracting talent in the contemporary labor market. The alignment of the political stars has helped states and localities to address the first challenge, but there is little evidence of a willingness to tackle the second.
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  • Social Security Coverage of State and Local Government Employees

    About one-fourth of state and local government employees are not covered by Social Security for various historical and other reasons.
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  • Golden Handcuffs

    Evidence suggests that current pension systems, by concentrating benefits on teachers who spend their entire careers in a single state and penalizing mobile teachers, may exacerbate the challenge of attracting to teaching young workers.
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  • Pension Litigation Summary (April 2013)

    This review represents a centralized resource that monitors the lawsuits and court decisions currently challenging public pension reform.
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