Research
40% of Older Workers and Their Spouses Will Experience Downward Mobility
Inadequate retirement accounts will cause 8.5 million middle-class older workers and their spouses to be downwardly mobile, falling into poverty or near poverty in their old age.
ReLab's study of retirement wealth inequality between 1992 and 2010 finds that the retirement system is failing everyone, with those at the bottom suffering the most. Our corresponding policy note, "Extreme Inequality is Persistent, Even Among Those With Similar Earnings," discusses policies to address the inequalities baked into our system.
One-third of older workers have neither retirement savings through a 401(k) or IRA, nor a defined benefit (DB) pension.
This paper entertains two distinct hypotheses about the meaning and effect of the Lucas critique.
Economic shocks, such as job-loss, have particularly adverse effects on retirement savings of workers in low-income households, exacerbating retirement savings inequality.
Inadequate wealth accumulations reflect well-known design flaws in the 401(k) system.
Financial necessity is an important reason low-wage households are more likely to make pre-retirement withdrawals from their 401(k) plans.
This paper further explores the plausibility of the Keynesian stability condition by enriching the Kaleckian growth model with a more fully developed Keynesian theory of expectations formation.
The plan proposes a simple, effective solution to address the fundamental flaws in today’s broken retirement system.
About SCEPA
SCEPA works to focus the public economics debate on the role government can and should play in the real productive economy - that of business, management, and labor - to raise living standards, create economic security, and attain full employment.
