The Boettner Center

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania established the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Security to support scholarly research, teaching, and outreach on global aging, successful retirement, and public and private pensions. The center also will disseminate research findings to international audiences of academics and policy-makers as well as support data development efforts at the University of Pennsylvania. Olivia S. Mitchell, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor, is Boettner Center Director and founder. Focuses of the Center include:

Research on Global Aging

Affiliates of the center explore challenges and opportunities associated with global aging and retirement. Researchers evaluate means to strengthen global retirement income systems and ways to address economic and social problems in developing and developed countries.

Research on Successful Retirement

The center encourages research on saving behavior, how/why retirees invest well or poorly, and how they manage their resources during retirement. Projects may evaluate links between older peoples’ psychological and physical conditions as theses influence retirement patterns and wellbeing, as well as interactions between physical and mental health, and successful retirement. Affiliates concerned with retirement security and financial gerontology will develop models to predict and enhance financial security among the elderly.

Research on Retirement Income Security

The center supports projects on public and private pensions, extending the work of the Pension Research Council at the Wharton School. Projects include research on retirement plan guarantees, government social insurance programs including disability insurance, participant-directed pensions and the impact of administrative costs, investment options in retirement, and regulation and supervision of annuity markets in the context of retirement systems. Projects also evaluate the optimal mix between public and private retirement income programs.

Support for Data Projects

The center facilitates access to research and data critical to the investigation of retirement security in the U.S. and around the world.

To view current and past projects, please see our working papers.

Olivia S. Mitchell  – International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor; Professor of Insurance/Risk Management and Business Economics/Public Policy; Executive Director of the Pension Research Council; Director of the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research, all at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Jere R. Behrman – William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Economics and of Sociology; Research Associate, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Irma T. Elo – Professor of Sociology; Department of Sociology & Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Kent Smetters – Boettner Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA