Pension Obligations: A Threat to Fiscal Stability?
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Using state pension data from 2001-2011, this paper explores the relationship between unfunded liabilities and demographic, fiscal, and political variables. Many have blamed the current decline in pension funding on poor market returns during the Great Recession and the “.com” bubble before that. Others claim that pension funds are just poorly managed. While the latter may be true, I show that investment returns cannot fully account for the change in funding ratio. In fact the mean compound return over this time period stands in stark contrast to the decline in the mean funding ratio. I argue that political and legal factors are responsible for inadequate contributions to pension funds. Furthermore, I show that pension funding is correlated with state debt and many categories of state spending.
Description
Type of resource | text |
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Date created | May 2014 |
Creators/Contributors
Author | Davis, Cole W. | |
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Primary advisor | Boskin, Michael | |
Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Economics |
Subjects
Subject | public pensions |
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Subject | unfunded liabilities |
Subject | state government |
Subject | politics |
Subject | debt |
Subject | finance |
Subject | investment |
Subject | Stanford Department of Economics |
Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Davis, Cole W. (2014). Pension Obligations: A Threat to Fiscal Stability?. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/mw550wm3401
Collection
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses
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