In Search Of Retirement Security: The Changing Mix Of Social Insurance, Employee Benefits, And Individual Responsibility

by Teresa Ghilarducci (Editor), Van Doorn Ooms (Editor), John L. Palmer (Editor)

Since World War II, Social Security and employer-based pension plans have become the foundations of an economic security that enables older Americans to retire with dignity and financial independence. Social insurance and tax advantaged retirement benefits currently face a number of challenges, however. The upcoming retirement of the baby boomers will swell the ranks of the retired, which are estimated to double by 2020, straining the Social Security and Medicare programs. Employers are struggling to keep their pension funds afloat, while fewer and fewer companies are offering traditional pension plans. Americans are living longer than ever before, which means they draw benefits longer, taxing the system. In Search of Retirement Security considers these challenges and provides fresh perspectives on the changing responsibilities of individuals, employers, and government in ensuring the continued dignity and independence of retirees.Contributors include Robert Frank (Cornell University), Teresa Ghilarducci (University of Notre Dame), Catherine Hill (American Association of University Women), John H. Langbein (Yale Law School), Maya C. MacGuineas (New America Foundation), Jerry L. Mashaw (Yale Law School), William Niskanen (Cato Institute), Van Doorn Ooms (Committee for Economic Development), John L. Palmer (Syracuse University), Joseph Quinn (Boston College), Virginia Reno (National Academy of Social Insurance), Annika Sundén (Swedish National Social Insurance Board), and Lawrence H. Thompson (Urban Institute).

148 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2005

About the author

Teresa Ghilarducci is an economist, author, and labor economist, and retirement security expert. Her widely circulated New York Times op-ed "Our Ridiculous Approach to Retirement" brought attention to her fresh and comprehensive critique of the America way of provisioning for retirement. Her book, When I'm 64: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them, presents her cutting-edge policy recommendations for restructuring the United States’ deteriorating retirement income security system. Her book Labor’s Capital: The Economics and Politics of Employer Pensions won an Association of American Publishers award in 1992. For the past five years, she has served as a court appointed trustee of the $50 billion retiree health care fund for ford, GM, and Chrysler retirees. Before coming The New School she was a professor at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Ghilarducci was the 2006–08 Wurf Fellow at Harvard Law School; her research has been funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, U.S. Department of Labor, Ford Foundation, and Retirement Research Foundation.