Overview of the Issue

This issue features three original research articles and an issues & policy article. The first article in the issue is by David McCarthy (Oxford University, UK). A Life Cycle Analysis of Defined Benefit Plans examines optimal benefit design within the context of a lifecycle model. The model finds that the structure of defined benefit plans is unlikely to be optimal for younger workers. The intuition is straightforward: defined benefit pensions depend heavily on the evolution of a worker's human capital and young workers are already heavily exposed to human capital risks. Older workers however may find wage indexed claims to be more valuable as most other human capital uncertainty has vanished.