| Job Tenure and Pension Coverage |
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WP#2006-18 AbstractCommentators constantly cite an increase in labor mobility as a major reason for the shift in the private sector from defined benefit to defined contribution plans. But while most casual observers accept such a phenomenon, economists have been hard pressed to find any significant change over time. Only in recent years have the data indicated that mobility might have increased for some groups. This pattern suggests that the advent of 401(k) plans led to an increase in mobility rather than an increase in mobility leading to the proliferation of 401(k)s. This paper attempts to sort out this "chicken and egg" issue using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the 1984 through 2001 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). For executive summary in PDF For full paper in PDF For related Issue in Brief Alicia H. Munnell is the Director of the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) and the Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. Kelly Haversstick is a research economist at the CRR. Geoffrey Sanzenbacher is a graduate research assistant at the CRR. The research reported herein was performed, in part, pursuant to a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Retirement Research Consortium. The findings and conclusions expressed are soley those of the authors and do not represent the views of SSA, any agency of the Federal Government, or Boston College. The authors would like to thank JP Aubry for helpful research assistance. |