British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Why has it all gone wrong? The past, present and future of British pensions

Abstract

Occupational Pension Schemes in the United States: Comparisons to the United Kingdom

Dr Steven A. Sass (Centre for Retirement Research, Boston College, USA)

This paper discusses the development employer pension plans in the United States, with explicit comparisons to developments in the United Kingdom, in each of three distinct historical periods:

1. The creation of employer plans in the United States: to1940.
   A discussion of the reasons why U.S. employers, as employers in essentially all industrial nations, created the old-age pension programs as part of a larger personnel policy.
2. The post-war expansion of employer plans in the United States: 1945-1980.
   A discussion of the rapid expansion of employer plans in the United States, and other ?Anglo-Saxon? nations, in response to political and economic changes in the post-war period.
3. The shift from defined-benefit to defined contribution employer plans: since 1980.
   A discussion of the DB-DC transition in the United States, and other ?Anglo-Saxon? nations, as a response to competitive and labor-market changes.

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