Gender and Pensions

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E M P L O Y E E   B E N E F I T S ,   C O M P E N S A T I O N
                  A N D   P E N S I O N   L A W
                  Vol. 2, No. 11: June 7, 2001
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Publisher:     LSN Subject Matter Journals
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Editor:        PAMELA J. PERUN
               Urban Institute
               Mailto:pamela@planetnow.com

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Topic of This Issue: Gender and Pensions
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T A B L E of C O N T E N T S
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NEW and FORTHCOMING ARTICLES

"Employer Provided Pension Data in the NLS Mature Women's Survey
and in the Health and Retirement Study"
      Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 19, 2000
     ALAN L. GUSTMAN
        Dartmouth College
        Department of Economics
        National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
     THOMAS L. STEINMEIER
        Texas Tech University
        Department of Economics
        National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

"Women on Savings and Retirement: Results From the 2000 Women's
Retirement Confidence Survey"
      EBRI Notes, Vol. 22, No. 2, February 2001
     TERESA TURYN
        Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)
     RUTH HELMAN
        Mathew Greenwald & Associates

"Women and Pensions: A Decade of Progress?"
      EBRI Issue Brief, No. 227 (November 2000)
     VICKIE L. BAJTELSMIT
        Colorado State University
        Department of Finance and Real Estate
     NANCY JIANAKOPLOS
        Colorado State University
        College of Business

"The Gender Gap in Pension Wealth: Is Women's Progress in the
Labor Market Equalizing Benefits?"
      The Retirement Project, Brief Series, No. 1, March 1999
     RICHARD W. JOHNSON
        Urban Institute

"Husbands & Wives, Dangerousness & Dependence: Public Pensions in
the 1860s-1920s"
      Denver University Law Review, Vol. 75, Pp. 1181-1213, 1999
     SUSAN M. STERETT
        University of Denver

WORKING PAPERS

"The Political Feasibility of Increasing Retirement Age: Lessons
from a Ballot on Female Retirement Age"
     MONIKA BUTLER
        Universite de Lausanne
        Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC)
        Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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EDITORIAL POLICIES
To provide the broadest coverage of research in Employee
Benefits, Compensation and Pension Law we do not referee working
papers. We accept abstracts of working papers in Employee
Benefits, Compensation and Pension Law whose topics suit the
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scholarly discourse.

N E W and F O R T H C O M I N G Articles
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"Employer Provided Pension Data in the NLS Mature Women's Survey
and in the Health and Retirement Study"
Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 19, 2000

      BY: ALAN L. GUSTMAN
              Dartmouth College
              Department of Economics
              National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
           THOMAS L. STEINMEIER
              Texas Tech University
              Department of Economics
              National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Contact: ALAN L. GUSTMAN
   Email: Mailto:alan.gustman@dartmouth.edu
Postal: Dartmouth College
           Department of Economics
           6106 Rockefeller Center
           Hanover, NH 03755 USA
   Phone: 603-646-2641
     Fax: 603-646-2122
Co-Auth: THOMAS L. STEINMEIER
   Email: Mailto:Thomas.Steinmeier@TTU.EDU
Postal: Texas Tech University
           Department of Economics
           Lubbock, TX 79409-2101 USA

ABSTRACT:
We compute pension wealth from employer provided pension plan
descriptions matched to respondent surveys to the National
Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women (NLS-MW) and the Health and
Retirement Study (HRS). These calculations provide detailed
information on the level and distribution of pension wealth and
a variety of incentives from pensions. Differences between the
pensions of men and women are largely explained by differences
in earnings. However, there also are differences in the shapes
of the pension accrual profiles of defined benefit plans that
are likely to reflect the lower tenure of women. Pension
coverage is lower in the NLS-MW than in the HRS. As a result,
pension wealth is lower in the NLS-MW than in the HRS. But the
difference in coverage is not due to the effects of pension
matching. Pension values for covered respondents are similar
between the NLS-MW and HRS surveys. Systematic differences
between the surveys in the rate at which pensions were matched
do not have a major effect on findings as to the levels and
distributions of pension wealth between the surveys.

Keywords: Pension

JEL Classification: D31, J14, J16, J26, J32
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"Women on Savings and Retirement: Results From the 2000 Women's
Retirement Confidence Survey"
EBRI Notes, Vol. 22, No. 2, February 2001

      BY: TERESA TURYN
              Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)
           RUTH HELMAN
              Mathew Greenwald & Associates

Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=261975

Contact: TERESA TURYN
   Email: Mailto:turyn@ebri.org
Postal: Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)
           Suite 600
           2121 K Street, NW
           Washington, DC 20037-1896 USA
   Phone: 202-775-6353
     Fax: 202-775-6312
Co-Auth: RUTH HELMAN
   Email: Mailto:ruthhelman@greenwaldresearch.com
Postal: Mathew Greenwald & Associates
           4201 Connecticut Ave., NW
           Suite 620
           Washington, DC USA 20008

Paper Requests:
Contact Alicia Willis at Mailto:willis@ebri.org, or 2121 K St.,
NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20037-1896. Phone:(202)775-9132,
Fax:(202)775-6312. Full-Text downloads are available from SSRN
Online for $7.50.

ABSTRACT:
The results from the 2000 Women's Retirement Confidence Survey
(WRCS) offer encouraging news on women's retirement prospects,
as well as areas of concern. Differing views and attitudes
toward savings and retirement planning among various social,
economic, and ethnic groups of women may be helpful for future
educational programs targeted at increasing women's saving
rates. The results also demonstrate the need for more and better
education for women, particularly minority women, about planning
and saving for retirement. Most women are saving for retirement,
which is good, but many still are not. In addition, even women
who are saving need help - most have no idea how much they need
to save. Education continues to be a crucial component of
efforts to ensure the retirement income security of American
women.

Keywords: Retirement attitudes and opinions, Retirement
planning, Savings, Social Security attitudes and opinions

JEL Classification: J16, J26
______________________________

"Women and Pensions: A Decade of Progress?"
EBRI Issue Brief, No. 227 (November 2000)

      BY: VICKIE L. BAJTELSMIT
              Colorado State University
              Department of Finance and Real Estate
           NANCY JIANAKOPLOS
              Colorado State University
              College of Business

Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=257821

Contact: NANCY JIANAKOPLOS
   Email: Mailto:njianakoplos@vines.ColoState.edu
Postal: Colorado State University
           College of Business
           Dept. of Economics
           Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA
   Phone: 970-491-6537
     Fax: 970-491-2925
Co-Auth: VICKIE L. BAJTELSMIT
   Email: Mailto:Vickie_Bajtelsmit@biznet.cobus.colostate.edu
Postal: Colorado State University
           Department of Finance and Real Estate
           C366 Andrew G. Clark Bldg.
           Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA

ABSTRACT:
This Issue Brief compares changes from 1989 to 1998 in pension
participation, accumulation, and allocation for employed women,
versus employed men, ages 18-62. In addition, it provides an
estimate of the gender "pension gap" in defined contribution
accumulations, contrasts this with the gender "earnings gap,"
and provides explanations for these differences.

Keywords: Asset allocation, Compensation, Demographics,
Defined contribution plans, Pension plan assets, Pension plan
contributions, Pension plan participation

JEL Classification: J16, J26, J31
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"The Gender Gap in Pension Wealth: Is Women's Progress in the
Labor Market Equalizing Benefits?"
The Retirement Project, Brief Series, No. 1, March 1999

BY: RICHARD W. JOHNSON
Urban Institute

Contact: RICHARD W. JOHNSON
   Email: Mailto:Rjohnson@ui.urban.org
Postal: Urban Institute
           2100 M Street, NW
           Washington, DC 20037 USA
   Phone: 202-261-5541
     Fax: 202-833-4388

Note: This is a description of the paper, not the actual
abstract.

Paper Requests:
All Urban Institute publications (books, policy briefs, etc) and
Urban Institute Press books may be ordered from: Urban Institute
Press, P.O. Box 7273, Dept. C., Washington, DC 20044
Fax:202-467-5775; Toll-free:877-UIPRESS (847-7377);
Mailto:pubs@ui.urban.org http://newfederalism.urban.org/

ABSTRACT:
An important concern for pension policy is the unequal
distribution of retirement benefits. Differences in
employer-sponsored pension wealth are especially pronounced
between men and women. This report examines gender differences
in pension benefits among the elderly and differences in
coverage rates and pension wealth among full-time workers.
Although the proportion of elderly women receiving
employer-sponsored pension income doubled from 1976 to 1996,
elderly women were only about half as likely as elderly men to
receive pension income in 1996, and median pension income among
recipients was much higher for men than for women. The gender
gap in pension wealth among those currently approaching
retirement is also large. Based on data from the 1992 pension
provider supplement to the Health and Retirement Study, the
study found that median pension wealth was $120,000 for men and
$68,000 for women, among full-time wage and salary workers
between the ages of 51 and 61. However, most of the gender gap
in pension wealth could be explained by differences in personal
and job characteristics between men and women, especially by
differences in wages and job tenure. Differential labor market
returns to human capital and other variables accounted for only
a small portion of the gender gap in pension wealth. These
findings suggest that private pension income will improve
substantially for women who begin to retire over the next few
decades, reflecting increases over the past 25 years in women's
labor force participation rates, years of work experience, and
earnings. However, eliminating the gender gap in pension wealth
is unlikely to reduce the high rates of poverty among elderly
widows.

Keywords: pension, benefits, elderly, gender, gap, retirement

JEL Classification: J32, J33, J38, J26
______________________________

"Husbands & Wives, Dangerousness & Dependence: Public Pensions in
the 1860s-1920s"
Denver University Law Review, Vol. 75, Pp. 1181-1213, 1999

BY: SUSAN M. STERETT
University of Denver

Contact: SUSAN M. STERETT
   Email: Mailto:ssterett@du.edu
Postal: University of Denver
           Denver, CO 80208-2685 USA
   Phone: 303-871-2136
     Fax: 303-871-2045

ABSTRACT:
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, states enacted
public pension programs for civil servants, following on
military pensions. In contests over who deserved these pensions,
discussions in courts moved from an anaylsis of the obligations
owed to the national government and the relationship between the
state and national governments to an analysis of the qualities
required to perform the work. Earned benefits were often
considered to require masculine characteristics, considering
marriage as part of a proper masculine role. When women claimed
the benefits as heirs, courts would sometimes consider what made
a woman a proper wife. This article discusses these benefits in
light of assessing a sometimes close connection in state policy
between heterosexuality and gender.

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W O R K I N G P A P E R Abstracts
_________________________________________________________________

"The Political Feasibility of Increasing Retirement Age: Lessons
from a Ballot on Female Retirement Age"

      BY: MONIKA BUTLER
              Universite de Lausanne
              Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC)
              Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=268679

Paper ID: CEPR Discussion Paper No. 2780
Date: April 2001

Contact: MONIKA BUTLER
   Email: Mailto:monika.butler@hec.unil.ch
Postal: Universite de Lausanne
           Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC)
           HEC-DEEP, BFSH1
           CH 1015 Lausanne Dorigny,   SWITZERLAND
   Phone: +41 21 692 3451
     Fax: +41 21 692 3365

Paper Requests:
Contact CEPR Discussion papers, 90-98 Goswell Road, London EC1V
7RR, UK. Phone:(44 20)7878 2900. Fax:(44 20) 7878 2999.
Mailto:orders@cepr.org Fee: 5 (British Pound Sterling) /US $5 /8
euros per paper. Payment in advance is requested. Postage and
packing additional.

ABSTRACT:
In 1998, the Swiss voters approved of an increase in female
retirement age from 62 to 64. The referendum, being on a single
issue only, offers a unique opportunity to explore the political
feasibility of pension reforms and to apply theoretical models
of life-cycle decision making. Estimates carried out with
municipality data suggest that the outcome of the vote conforms
relatively well with predictions drawn from a theoretical
simulation study. There are, however, surprising gender
differences even in married couples. Young agents, married
middle-aged and all elderly men favour an increase in female
retirement age, while middle-aged and elderly women strongly
oppose it. Richer communities and those with a high proportion
of self-employed or a low fraction of blue-collar workers are
more likely to opt for a higher retirement age. Ideological
preferences and regional differences also play a considerable
role.