PREFACE On February 14, 1979, the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging contracted with the Urban Institute of Washington, D.C., to conduct a study of the major income and employment issues affecting older Americans. The resulting information paper, entitled "Emerging Options for Work and Retirement Policy," is a comprehensive document which surveys the economic impacts of an aging population, presents an agenda for future research into the principal income and employment policy issues, and provides an outline of those policy options that the committee should review in guiding Congress to legislative answers to these major policy questions. The committee would like to acknowledge and thank James R. Storey, principal author and coordinator of the study, for his leadership in successfully synthesizing a massive amount of material in order to present a rather complete range of policy options for committee consideration. Acknowledgment and thanks are also due to several of Mr. Storey's colleagues at the Institute who contributed in various ways to the formulation of this document. Valuable writing and research assistance was received from Margaret B. Sulvetta and Wendy Goldberg. Richard Wertheimer, Gary Hendricks, Sheila Zedlewski, George Peterson, Nancy Barrett, and Denys Vaughn-Cooke provided useful comments and ideas to the project. Brenda Brown, Mary Mingo, and Penny Rosenwasser assisted in the preparation of manuscripts. During the past several years, it has become more and more apparent that older Americans desire expanded "options" in the areas of retirement income planning and employment. A rising rate of inflation, deficiencies in the present structure of social security and certain public and private pension programs, along with an increasing interest on the part of older workers in part-time employment and other alternative work modes, indicate that these issues will be among the most critical ones for policymakers in the 1980's. The Members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging believe that "Emerging Options for Work and Retirement Policy" will be extremely valuable to them and to other professionals in the field of aging as we formulate an agenda which can successfully meet the crucial retirement income and employment needs of older Americans during the current decade. LAWTON CHILES, Chairman. PETE V. DOMENICI, Ranking Minority Member. CONTENTS Chapter 1.-Major policy issues affecting the income and employment of I. Issues of benefit adequacy and fairness: A. Are retirement incomes and benefits for the aged inad- C. Are retirement systems and pension plans adequately D. How should the cost of providing for retirement income E. Do pension plans discourage saving and investment?. Page G. Should individuals' working lives extend to older ages?__ H. Will critical labor market scarcities and/or surpluses re- Chapter 2.-The economic impacts of an aging population: A review of The determinants of age structure change- Socioeconomic composition of the elderly population in the 21st I. The impact of population aging on employment: A. Size and composition of the labor force....... B. Impact of aging on the unemployment rate__ E. Impact on industrial mix and occupational distribution__ II. Impact on income, consumption, and wealth: A. Impact of aging on income distribution C. Employer-provided pension plans. C. Limitations on research imposed by data gaps.. II. Identification of priority research issues: A. Research on issues of benefit adequacy and fairness. B. Research on financial issues. C. Research on employment issues. D. Research on issues of system coordination and design... Chapter 4.-Policies affecting the income and employment of older I. Major policy option packages...... B. Public employee retirement systems.. II. Outline of additional policy options: A. Benefit adequacy and fairness.. D. System coordination and design.. III. Positions taken by interest groups: D. Aged and retirees' organizations.. E. Pension industry organizations.. |