The Revenue Demands of Public Employee Pension Promises
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 6,
no. 1, February 2014
(pp. 193-229)
Abstract
We calculate increases in contributions required to achieve full funding of state and local pension systems in the United States over 30 years. Without policy changes, contributions would have to increase by 2.5 times, reaching 14.1 percent of the total own revenue generated by state and local governments. This represents a tax increase of $1,385 per household per year, around half of which would go to pay down legacy liabilities while half would fund the cost of new promises. We examine sensitivity to asset return assumptions, wage correlations, the treatment of workers not currently in Social Security, and endogenous geographical shifts in the tax base.Citation
Novy-Marx, Robert, and Joshua Rauh. 2014. "The Revenue Demands of Public Employee Pension Promises." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 6 (1): 193-229. DOI: 10.1257/pol.6.1.193Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H55 Social Security and Public Pensions
- H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
- J26 Retirement; Retirement Policies
- J45 Public Sector Labor Markets
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