@article {5784,
	title = {Family Status Transitions, Latent Health, and the Post-Retirement Evolution of Assets},
	number = {15789},
	year = {2010},
	institution = {National Bureau of Economic Research},
	address = {Cambridge, MA},
	abstract = {We consider the evolution of assets after retirement. We ask whether total assets--including housing equity, personal retirement accounts, and other financial assets--tend to be husbanded for a rainy day and drawn down primarily at the time of precipitating shocks, or whether they are drawn down throughout the retirement period. We focus on the relationships between family status transitions,  latent  health status, and the evolution of assets. Our analysis is based primarily on longitudinal data from the HRS and AHEAD cohorts of the Health and Retirement Study. We find that the evolution of assets is strongly related to family status transitions. For both single individuals and married couples who do not experience a death or divorce, total assets increase well into old age. In contrast, individuals in married couples that experience a family status transition, either a death or a divorce, exhibit much slower asset growth and often experience a large decline in asset values at the time of the transition. In addition, the level and evolution of assets is very strongly related to health, measured by a latent health index. For example, for continuing two-person HRS households between the ages of 56 and 61 in 1992 the ratio of assets of households in the top health quintile to the assets of those in the bottom quintile was 1.7 in 1992. It had increased to 2.2 by the end of 2006.},
	keywords = {Adult children, Housing, Net Worth and Assets, Pensions},
	doi = {10.3386/w15789},
	author = {James M. Poterba and Steven F Venti and David A Wise}
}
@book {5286,
	title = {Research findings in the economics of aging},
	series = {The Economics of Aging},
	year = {2010},
	note = {Includes bibliographical references and indexes.},
	publisher = {University of Chicago Press},
	organization = {University of Chicago Press},
	address = {Chicago},
	abstract = {The baby boom generation{\textquoteright}s entry into old age has led to an unprecedented increase in the elderly population. The social and economic effects of this shift are significant, and in Research Findings in the Economics of Aging, a group of leading researchers takes an eclectic view of the subject. Among the broad topics discussed are work and retirement behavior, disability, and their relationship to the structure of retirement and disability policies.
While choices about when to retire are made by individuals, these decisions are influenced by a set of incentives, including retirement benefits and health care, and this volume includes cross-national analyses of the effects of such programs on these decisions. Furthermore, the volume also offers in-depth analysis of the effects of retirement plans, employer contributions, and housing prices on retirement. It explores well-established relationships among economic circumstances, health, and mortality, as well as the effects of poverty and lower levels of economic development on health and life satisfaction. By combining micro and macro evidence, this volume continues a tradition of expanding the research agenda on the economics of aging.},
	keywords = {Demographics, Disabilities, Medicare/Medicaid/Health Insurance, Net Worth and Assets, Pensions},
	isbn = {0-226-90306-0},
	url = {https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/research-findings-economics-aging},
	author = {David A Wise}
}
@conference {NBERw13381,
	title = {The Changing Landscape of Pensions in the United States},
	booktitle = {Increasing the Effectiveness of Financial Education and Saving Programs},
	year = {2007},
	publisher = {NBER},
	organization = {NBER},
	abstract = {The pension landscape in the U.S. has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. Saving through personal retirement accounts has become the principal form of retirement saving. We document the transition from a defined benefit system to a personal account system and show the effect it has had on wealth at retirement. We summarize results from other research we have done to project the growth of retirement assets over the next three decades. Our projections suggest that the advent of personal account saving will increase wealth at retirement for future retirees across the lifetime earnings spectrum.},
	keywords = {Pensions},
	doi = {10.3386/w13381},
	author = {James M. Poterba and Steven F Venti and David A Wise}
}
@inbook {5194,
	title = {The Transition to Personal Retirement Accounts and Increasing Retirement Wealth},
	booktitle = {Perspectives on the Economics of Aging},
	year = {2004},
	note = {ProCite field 6 : In ProCite field 8 : ed.},
	publisher = {University of Chicago Press},
	organization = {University of Chicago Press},
	address = {Chicago, IL},
	abstract = {Retirement saving has changed dramatically over the last two decades. There has been a shift from employer-managed defined benefit pensions to defined contribution retirement saving plans that are largely controlled by employees. In 1980, 92 percent of private retirement saving contributions were to employer-based plans and 64 percent of these contributions were to defined benefit plans. Today, about 85 percent of private contributions are to plans in which individuals decide how much to contribute to the plan, how to invest plan assets and how and when to withdraw money from the plan. In this paper we use both macro and micro data to describe the change in retirement assets and in retirement saving. We give particular attention to the possible substitution of pension assets in one plan for assets in another plan such as the substitution of 401(k) assets for defined benefit plan assets. Aggregate data show that between 1975 and 1999 assets to support retirement increased about five-fold relative to wage and salary income. This increase suggests large increases in the wealth of future retirees. The enormous increase in defined contribution plan assets dwarfed any potential displacement of defined benefit plan assets. In addition, in recent years the annual {\textquoteright}retirement plan contribution rate,{\textquoteright} defined as retirement plan contributions as a percentage of NIPA personal income, has been over 5 percent. This is much higher than the NIPA total personal saving rate, which has been close to zero. Retirement saving as a share of personal income today would likely be at least one percentage point greater had it not been for legislation in the 1980s that limited employer contributions to defined benefit pension plans, and the reduction in defined benefit plan contributions associated with the rising stock market of the 1990s. It is also likely that the {\textquoteright}retirement plan contribution rate{\textquoteright} would be much higher today if it were not for the 1986 retrenchment of the IRA program. Rising retirement plan contributions, as well as favorable rates of return on retirement plan assets in the 1990s, explain the large increase in these assets relative to income. Employee retirement saving under a defined contribution plan is easily measured and quite},
	keywords = {Net Worth and Assets, Pensions},
	doi = {10.3386/w8610},
	author = {James M. Poterba and Steven F Venti and David A Wise},
	editor = {David A Wise}
}
@inbook {5177,
	title = {Preretirement Cashouts and Foregone Retirement Saving: Implications for 401(k) Asset Accumulation},
	booktitle = {Themes in the Economics of Aging},
	year = {2001},
	note = {RDA 1999-002 Wise ProCite field 6 : In ProCite field 8 : ed},
	pages = {23-58},
	publisher = {University of Chicago Press},
	organization = {University of Chicago Press},
	address = {Chicago, IL},
	keywords = {Consumption and Savings, Net Worth and Assets, Pensions},
	url = {https://www.nber.org/chapters/c10320},
	author = {James M. Poterba and Steven F Venti and David A Wise},
	editor = {David A Wise}
}
@article {6717,
	title = {Saver Behavior and 401(k) Retirement Wealth},
	journal = {American Economic Review},
	volume = {90},
	year = {2000},
	note = {RDA 1999-002},
	pages = {297-302},
	publisher = {90},
	abstract = { Contributions to 401(k) plans are now the most
 important form of retirement saving. Since 401(k)
 plans were introduced in the early 1980{\textquoteright}s, they
 have expanded rapidly and continuously. By
 1998, roughly half of all households were eligible
 to participate in 401(k) plans, and more than 36
 million workers made contributions to these
 employer-provided saving plans. In 1995, the last
 year for which the U.S. Department of Labor
 has released definitive data, 401(k) contribu-
 tions amounted to $87.4 billion, or 55 percent of
 all contributions to employer-sponsored pension
 plans. The level of contributions, and their share
 of all pension contributions, is probably signifi-
 cantly higher today.
 The spread of 401(k) plans is the most
 important indicator of the move to personal
 retirement saving. In 1980, almost 92 percent
 of pension-plan contributions were to tradi-
 tional employer-provided plans, and about
 64 percent of these contributions were to
 conventional defined-benefit plans. Today,
 almost 60 percent of contributions are to
 personal retirement accounts, including 401(k),
 IRA, and Keogh plans. Including employer-
 provided, non-40 1 (k) defined-contribution
 plans, over 76 percent of contributions are to
 plans that are controlled in large measure by
 individuals. These individuals make partici-
 pation, contribution, asset-allocation, and
 withdrawal decisions.
 In this paper, we describe the likely impor-
 tance of 401(k) assets for future older Ameri-
 cans and the effect of investment decisions on
 asset accumulation. We also examine the extent
 to which retirement assets may be affected by
 several decisions: preretirement withdrawals,
 management fees and expenses, contribution
 rates, and early retirement. Our analysis focuses
 on 401(k) saving, but applies more broadly to
 other forms of individual retirement saving.},
	keywords = {Consumption and Savings, Net Worth and Assets, Pensions, Retirement Planning and Satisfaction, Social Security},
	url = {https://www.jstor.org/stable/117239?seq=1},
	author = {James M. Poterba and Steven F Venti and David A Wise}
}
@article {6621,
	title = {401(k) Plans and future patterns of retirement saving},
	journal = {American Economic Review},
	volume = {88},
	year = {1998},
	note = {RDA 1999-002},
	pages = {179-184},
	publisher = {88},
	abstract = {This paper summarizes current participation and contribution patterns in 401(k) plans and projects 401(k) balances at retirement age for workers currently between the ages of 30 and 40. The various factors that will influence future 401(k) balances are discussed. The projections based on HRS data suggest that 401(k) plans are likely to play a significant role in providing for the retirement income of future retirees.},
	keywords = {Employment and Labor Force, Net Worth and Assets, Pensions, Retirement Planning and Satisfaction},
	url = {https://www.jstor.org/stable/116915?seq=1},
	author = {James M. Poterba and Steven F Venti and David A Wise}
}
@inbook {5162,
	title = {Implications of Rising Personal Retirement Saving},
	booktitle = {Frontiers in the Economics of Aging},
	year = {1998},
	note = {RDA 1999-002 ProCite field 8 : ed.},
	pages = {125-167},
	publisher = {University of Chicago Press},
	organization = {University of Chicago Press},
	address = {Chicago, IL},
	abstract = {This paper simulates the 401(k) assets of future generations of retirees and compares these assets with the social security and other assets of the households who are approaching retirement now.  The accumulation of 401(k) assets at retirement for the cohort that was 25 years old in 1984 and the cohort that was 15 years old in 1984 was projected. Findings based on these projections suggest that 401(k) assets will definitely be a significant component of the retirement wealth of future retirees and could be the dominant component for a large fraction of them.},
	keywords = {Employment and Labor Force, Income, Pensions},
	author = {James M. Poterba and Steven F Venti and David A Wise},
	editor = {David A Wise}
}
