The Decline of the Traditional Pension: A Comparative Study of Threats to Retirement Security

摘要

As one might expect from the title, the decline is that of employer-based defined benefit (DB) funds and their replacement by defined contribution (DC) funds with lower contributions. The threat to security arises from a lower level of benefit - and from investment and longevity risks. The author then asks how these threats can be addressed. While the author's base is in the US, he discusses similar declines in three other Anglophone countries, five in continental Europe and in Japan.