The Economics of Aging.

The NBER's Program on Aging, directed by David A. Wise of NBER and Harvard University, held its most recent in a series of conferences on May 17-20. The following papers, which will be published by the University of Chicago Press in an NBER Conference Volume, were presented:

James M. Poterba, NBER and MIT; Steven F. Vend, NBER and Dartmouth College; and David A. Wise, "The Transition to Personal Accounts and Increasing Retirement Wealth: Macro and Micro Evidence" Discussant: Sylvester Scheiber, Watson Wyatt Worldwide

James J. Choi and David Laibson, NBER and Harvard University; Brigitte Madrian, NBER and University of Chicago; and Andrew Metrick, University of Pennsylvania, "For Better or Worse: Default Effects and 401(k) Savings Behavior" Discussant: James M. Poterba

Jeffrey R. Brown, NBER and Harvard University, and Scott J. Weisbenner, University of Illinois, "Is a Bird in the Hand Worth More Than a Bird in the Bush? Intergenerational Transfers and Savings Behavior" Discussant: Alan J. Auerbach, NBER and University of California at Berkeley

James Banks and Richard Blundell, University College London, and James P. Smith, RAND Corporation, "Wealth Portfolios in the UK and the US"

Discussant: John B. Shoven, NBER and Stanford University Steven F. Vend and David A. Wise, "Aging and Housing Equity: Another Look" Discussant: Jonathan S. Skinner, NBER and Dartmouth College

Michael D. Hurd, NBER and RAND Corporation, Daniel L McFadden, NBER and University of California at Berkeley; Angela Merrill, Marhematica, and Tiago Ribiero, University of California at Berkeley, "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: The Evidence from AHEAD Wave 3"

Discussant: John P. Rust, NBER and Yale University

David M. Cutler, NBER and Harvard University, and Ellen Meara Harvard University, "Changes in the Age Distribution of Mortality Over the 20th Century"

Discussant: David Meltzer NBER and University of Chicago

Victor R. Fuchs and Mark B. McClellan, NBER and Stanford University, "Area Differences in Utilization of Medical Care and Mortality Among U.S. Elderly"

Discussant: Joseph P. Newhouse NBER and Harvard University

Anne Case, NBER and Princeton University, "Does Money Protect Health Status? Evidence from South African Pensions"

Discussant: Robert T. Jensen, NBER and Harvard University

Robert T. Jensen, "Socioeconomic Status, Nutrition, and Health Among the Elderly"

Discussant: David M. Cuder

Angus S. Deaton and Christina Paxson, NBER and Princeton University, "Mortality, Income, and Income Inequality among British and American Cohorts"

Discussant: James Banks

Poterba, Venti, and Wise use both macro and micro data to describe the change in retirement assets and in retirement savings that is attributable to the shift over the last two decades from employer-managed defined benefit (DB) pensions to retirement plans that are largely managed and controlled by employees. They pay particular attention to the possible substitution of pensions assets in one plan for assets in another plan, especially the substitution of 401(k) assets for DB assets. The macro data show that between 1975 and 1999 assets to support retirement increased about five-fold relative to wage and salary income, suggesting large increases in the wealth of future retirees. Retirement plan contributions, as well as favorable rates of return in the 1990s, explain the large increase in retirement plan assets. The micro data show no evidence that the accumulation of 401(k) assets has been...