Working Papers

Wharton Pension Research Council Working Papers

• How Gloomy is the Retirement Outlook for Millennials?
  Social, economic, demographic, and public policy shifts have made Millennial retirement security a pressing concern. Many recent trends threaten financial security for future generations of retirees. Male labor force participation pre-age 55 has slumped, men’s median earnings have stagnated, marriage and homeownership rates are falling, debt levels remain high, and out-of-pocket spending on medical and […]
• Wealth Inequality and Retirement Preparedness: A Cross-Cohort Perspective
  High and rising US wealth inequality underscores the need to revisit a perennial concern in policy circles: retirement preparedness. Our cross-cohort approach to studying retirement adequacy is based on relative wealth measures, meaning how the wealth distribution of one cohort compares to the cohorts ahead of them at the same age. We introduce relative rank […]
• The early impacts of coronavirus pandemic on Americans’ economic security
  The coronavirus pandemic has had enormous effects on the U.S. economy due to governmental mandates temporarily closing businesses and schools, and individuals remaining home due to fears of infection. In response, policymakers expanded unemployment benefits and passed legislation providing many people with Economic Impact Payments. As a result, many Americans’ financial stability actually improved early […]
• American's debt burden, retirement readiness, and the pandemic
  This paper analyzes Americans’ perceptions of being debt constrained. We focus on which population subgroups reported feeling most debt constrained, how this perception was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it relates to financial literacy and retirement readiness. To this end, we analyze two datasets, namely the 2020 and 2021 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance […]
• Does financial education in high school affect retirement savings in adulthood?
  Since individuals are increasingly required to manage their own retirement portfolios, policy levers that increase retirement planning and saving have become increasingly important. We use variation in timing and presence of state-required personal finance coursework in high schools to estimate the effect of the financial education coursework on the likelihood of holding and amount in […]