American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Retirement Security in an Aging Population
American Economic Review
vol. 104,
no. 5, May 2014
(pp. 1–30)
Abstract
Elderly individuals exhibit wide disparities in their sources of income. For those in the bottom half of the income distribution, Social Security is the most important source of support; program changes would directly affect their well-being. Income from private pensions, assets, and earnings are relatively more important for higher-income elderly individuals, who have more diverse income sources. The trend from private sector defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans has shifted responsibility for retirement security to individuals. A significant subset of the population is unlikely to be able to sustain their standard of living in retirement without higher pre-retirement saving.Citation
Poterba, James M. 2014. "Retirement Security in an Aging Population." American Economic Review 104 (5): 1–30. DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.5.1Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
- D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
- H55 Social Security and Public Pensions
- I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
- J14 Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination
- J26 Retirement; Retirement Policies