Why are pension funds so large and benefits so small? This examination ofthe 120-year-old American system of privatized social insurance - often called, at1.7 trillion dollars, the biggest lump of money in the world - reveals that thesystem fails to provide adequate retirement income security, its most prominentgoal, and, in fact, its greatest influence is in supplying funds to U.S. capitalmarkets.Linking market forces, historical movements, and social norms in theevolution of pensions, Ghilarducci's study is the first to focus on all majoraspects of the system. Its trenchant analysis of the many sides of pensions andpension policy addresses questions of whom the system benefits, its direct andsocial costs, and the possibilities of reforms that would take into account therelated problems of capital formation and retirement income.Ghilarducci describesthe history of pension funds and the involvement of unions in bargaining. She takesup the "moral hazard" involved in the conflicting interests of corporations andtheir employees, tackling issues of information availability and inequality ofpension distribution based on sex, race, and job hierarchy. And in two chapters, each focusing on corporate and union uses of pension funds, she covers such topicsas tax breaks, the effect of corporate takeovers, the use of pensions to pay backdebt, and the kinds of skimming that can occur despite government regulation ofpension activities. Ghilarducci concludes by presenting an ideal pension plan thatwould benefit both employer and employee and by offering predictions about pensionplans of the future. Teresa Ghilarducci is Associate Professor of Economics at theUniversity of Notre Dame.
- ISBN10 0585315981
- ISBN13 9780585315980
- Publish Date 14 May 2014 (first published 3 June 1992)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint MIT Press Ltd
- Format eBook
- Language English