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Administrative Costs in Public and Private Retirement Systems

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Author Info
Olivia S. Mitchell

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Abstract

This paper collects and analyzes available information on administrative costs associated with public and private retirement systems. We explore expenses of the US social security system and compare these with data from national systems in other countries. We find that administration costs of publicly-run social security systems vary a great deal across countries and institutional settings. A key factor influencing public old-age program costs is the system's scale: plans with more assets and more participants are less expensive. We also investigate expenses reported by US pension plans and mutual funds, programs seen by many as alternative mechanisms for managing retirement saving. Based on an analysis of costs associated with retirement savings plans managed by financial institutions, we conclude that privately managed old-age retirement programs would be somewhat more costly to operate than current publicly-managed programs, depending on the program's specific design. Nevertheless these costs would be accompanied by new services for participants.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 5734.

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Date of creation: Aug 1996
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5734

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Friedman, Benjamin M & Warshawsky, Mark J, 1990. "The Cost of Annuities: Implications for Saving Behavior and Bequests," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 105(1), pages 135-54, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Olivia S. Mitchell, 1991. "Trends in Pension Benefit Formulas and Retirement Provisions," NBER Working Papers 3744, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Olivia S. Mitchell, 1993. "Retirement Systems in Developed and Developing Countries: Institutional Features, Economic Effects, and Lessons for Economies in Transition," NBER Working Papers 4424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Valdes-Prieto, Salvador, 1994. "Administrative charges in pensions in Chile, Malaysia, Zambia, and the United States," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1372, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  5. Atkinson, A.B., 1987. "Income maintenance and social insurance," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 13, pages 779-908 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Elton, Edwin J, et al, 1993. "Efficiency with Costly Information: A Reinterpretation of Evidence from Managed Portfolios," Review of Financial Studies, Oxford University Press for Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(1), pages 1-22. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Gardner, Lisa A. & Grace, Martin F., 1993. "X-Efficiency in the US life insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 497-510, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Olivia S. Mitchell & Robert S. Smith, . "Public Sector Pension Funding," Pension Research Council Working Papers 94-4, Wharton School Pension Research Council, University of Pennsylvania.
  9. Barr, Nicholas, 1992. "Economic Theory and the Welfare State: A Survey and Interpretation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 741-803, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Benjamin M. Friedman & Mark Warshawsky, 1990. "The Cost of Annuities: Implications for Saving Behavior and Bequests," NBER Working Papers 1682, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Ping-Lung Hsin & Olivia S. Mitchell, . "The Political Economy of Public Pensions: Pension Funding, Governance, and Fiscal Stress," Pension Research Council Working Papers 94-6, Wharton School Pension Research Council, University of Pennsylvania.
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  1. Lindbeck, Assar & Persson, Mats, 2000. "What Are the Gains from Pension Reform?," Working Paper Series 535, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Tatiana Damjanovic, 2005. "On the Possibility of Pareto-improving Pension Reform," CRIEFF Discussion Papers 0504, Centre for Research into Industry, Enterprise, Finance and the Firm. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Boadway, Robin & Leite-Monteiro, Manuel & Marchand, Maurice G. & Pestieau, Pierre, 2004. "Social Insurance and Redistribution with Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection," CEPR Discussion Papers 4253, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Luciano Greco, 2005. "The Optimal Design of Funded Pension Plans: Unbundling Financing and Investment," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0003, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno". [Downloadable!]
  5. Andrew A. Samwick, 1997. "Discount Rate Heterogeneity and Social Security Reform," NBER Working Papers 6219, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Casey B. Mulligan & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2002. "Social Security in theory and practice wth implications for reform," Discussion Papers 0203-01, Columbia University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  7. BOADWAY, Robin & LEITE-MONTEIRO, Manuel & MARCHAND, Maurice & PESTIEAU, Pierre, 2001. "Social insurance and redistribution," CORE Discussion Papers 2001041, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. David Altig & Jagadeesh Gokhale, 1997. "Social Security privatization: a simple proposal," Working Paper 9703, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  9. repec:bep:eapadv:v:4:y:2004:i:1:p:1067-1067 is not listed on IDEAS
  10. Barrientos, Armando, 2002. "Comparing Pension Schemes in Chile, Singapore, Brazil and South Africa," General Discussion Papers 30560, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM). [Downloadable!]
  11. Casey B. Mulligan & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 1999. "Social Security in Theory and Practice (I): Facts and Political Theories," NBER Working Papers 7118, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  12. James,Estelle & Smalhout, James & Vittas, Dimitri, 2001. "Administrative costs and the organization of individual retirement account systems : a comparative perspective," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2554, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  13. Whitehouse, Edward, 2000. "Administrative charges for funded pensions: An international comparison and assessment," MPRA Paper 14172, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  14. Annika Sunden, 2003. "How Will Sweden's New Pension System Work?," Issues in Brief ib-3, Center for Retirement Research. [Downloadable!]
  15. Alan D. Viard, 1999. "The new budget outlook: policymakers respond to the surplus," Economic and Financial Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue Q II, pages 2-15. [Downloadable!]
  16. Martin Feldstein, 1997. "Transition to a Fully Funded Pension System: Five Economic Issues," NBER Working Papers 6149, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Marco A. Espinosa-Vega & Tapen Sinha, 2000. "A primer and assessment of social security reform in Mexico," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, issue Q1, pages 1-23. [Downloadable!]
  18. Peter Diamond, 1999. "Administrative Costs and Equilibrium Charges with Individual Accounts," NBER Working Papers 7050, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  19. Whitehouse, Edward, 2000. "Paying for pensions: An international comparison of administrative charges in funded retirement-income systems," MPRA Paper 14171, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  20. Joseph F. Quinn, 1997. "Criteria for Social Security Reform," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 367, Boston College Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  21. CASAMATTA, Georges & CREMER, Helmuth & PESTIEAU, Pierre, 1998. "On the political sustainability of redistributive social insurance systems," CORE Discussion Papers 1998038, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE). [Downloadable!]
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