Due to the combined impact of global population aging, increased life expectancy, fertility decline, and changing family structures, a growing segment of the population facing retirement is in danger of poverty and economic insecurity. As a result of their advanced age many elderly have lost their ability to earn an income, causing some to be penniless the rest of their lives. Therefore, the purpose of a government or a private run pension system is to provide a mechanism using financial tools to protect the entire structure for old age economic security. This paper not only introduces the philosophy and basic concept of a general pension system, but also examines a United States model, providing a closer look at a major developed industrial country’s national social security program, and corporate pension system. It also describes the experience of reforms on the development process of the United States retirement pension system. This paper studies the various corporate pension schemes in the United States and their possible application as models to countries such as Taiwan. In focusing on the United States corporate pension system in private sector, legal and economic issues are scrutinized. Theories which related to the pension system are first analyzed; then the definitions of the various retirement plans are given. The history of private pension schemes of the United States is told, starting with the American Express, then crude railroad retirement plans to the post-war demand to current United States retirement plans. Analysis of the changes in private sector's pension plan participation for defined benefits and defined contribution plans are examined in light of the impact these changes have made upon retirement income resources. Focus on the IBM Corporation is made as an example of a private sector business in the United States, and this study tracks the evolution of the company’s pension schemes from defined benefit pension plans to the newer hybrid cash balance pension plans and the now-popular defined contribution 401(k) pension plans. Findings show that the United States corporate pension system is not feasible as a model at this time because of its many deficiencies in its laws and regulations, and also because of the currently shaky global economy. Suggestions and possible remedies are given on how to strengthen the corporate retirement pension system in United States.

This dissertation studies underfunding in defined benefit (DB) pension plans and firms' contribution behavior, 401(k) plan participant investments in lifecycle funds under plan sponsors' initiative, and fund commonalities within mutual fund families. Responding to the recent decline in DB pension funding, firms have increased pension contributions to their underfunded plans. In the first essay I empirically examine firms' contribution behavior to underfunded DB plans and funding choice for pension contributions. I find that firms reveal different sensitivities of pension contributions to underfunding across aggregate funding levels. Furthermore, at a lower funding level firms have the greater sensitivity of pension contributions to underfunding and significantly utilize the tax deductibility of pension contributions. As for a funding choice to fund pension deficits, firms use debt financing at a low funding level, but utilize internal funding by decreasing capital expenditures at a lower funding level. Firms that use the debt financing are likely to have investment-grade credit ratings or high debt leverage, while firms that use the internal funding are likely to be high-levered ones. Recently lifecycle funds have rapidly grown in self-directed retirement plans. Despite the increasing popularity among plan sponsors and participants, there are few empirical studies on lifecycle funds. In the second essay, I examine the recent lifecycle fund adoption behavior of 401(k) plan participants from 2004 to 2006. I find that the likelihood of participants changing an investment strategy to adopt lifecycle funds is not significantly affected by participant demographic characteristics, but by participant account and plan design features. This study extends our understanding of 401(k) plan participants' investment behavior by finding (1) that the substitution of lifecycle funds for balanced funds, as well as the designation of lifecycle funds as a plan default, strongly affect participants' investments in lifecycle funds and (2) that balanced fund holdings of participants are negatively associated with their lifecycle fund investments. Mutual funds account for a significant portion of household financial assets and retirement assets. An understanding of characteristics of mutual funds is crucial to fund investors--especially those whose retirement nest eggs are in mutual funds. In the final essay, I examine the impacts of fund commonalities within mutual fund families on fund characteristics in terms of return residual correlations and fund operating expenses. As fund commonalities within a fund family, I focus on common stock holdings and common management of funds. I find that common stock holdings and an existence of a common manager of funds are positively related to return residual correlations, but negatively related to fund operating expenses. This finding suggests that when investors select low-cost equity funds within a family, they should be aware that there exists an investment risk that the fund commonalities that lower fund operating expenses may additionally increase return correlations of the funds. / Business Administration

近年來有很多關於退休金計畫的研究主要在探討從確定給付計畫(defined benefit plan)轉向確定提撥計畫(defined contribution plan)趨勢的影響。而這些早期的研究(Clark and McDermed(1990 and 1993), Gustman and Steinmeier(1992), Ippolito(1985, 1986, 1993, and 1997), and Kruse (1995); Papke(1994, 1996)and Papke, Petersen and Poterba(1996)主要是利用計畫個數的改變或者是計畫參與者人數的增減來作為衡量此一趨勢影響力的指標。然而，這兩項指標從退休收入多寡的觀點來看，卻無法反應此一趨勢對於員工福利的影響程度。Wang andVanDerhei(2000)利用了「雇主退休金成本」的新概念，探討此一趨勢的影響。而本篇論文將要延續Wang and VanDerhei(2000)的研究，藉由衡量雇主慷慨程度的改變，進一步分析此一趨勢對於員工未來退休收入的影響程度。為了檢視雇主退休金慷慨度是否有隨著時間以及環境變化而有所不同，我們利用OLS迴歸模型來分析在兩段期問中（1985年與1996年）雇主退休金慷慨度的變化。結果發現在確定給付計畫及401(k)計畫之下，退休金計畫存在的時間愈長以及工會的支持對於雇主慷慨程度都有正面的影響。在財務變數方面，我們則是發現不論哪一種型態的退休金計畫，稅前收入金額的多寡對於雇主慷慨程度均具有正面的影響。此外，利用Chow Test，我們發現確定給付計畫在1985年和1996年的確具有結構上的改變，進一步分析之後，發現退休金計畫存在時間愈長、工會的支持、金融相關產業、固定資產佔總資產的比例以及稅前收入金額的多寡對於1996年確定給付計畫下之雇主退休金慷凱度的正向影響遠大其對於1985年的確定給付計畫。在員工退休福利上，我們則是發現401(k)計畫的雇主相對提撥率在過去20年有明顯地成長，這意味著401(k)計畫下的員工在過去20年裡的退休福利有明顯的增加。 關鍵字：退休金趨勢、雇主退休金慷慨度、確定給付計畫、確定提撥計畫、401(k)計畫 / Much debate has devoted in recent pension literature to discuss the impacts of current pension trend toward defined contribution(DC) plans, especially the substitution effect between 401(k) and other pension plans. However, the“generosity”of the employer pension plan deserves little attention. This paper analyzes the impacts of the effects of this trend on workers' future retirement income by measuring the changes of employers' pension generosity. We construct a panel data of firms that sponsor at least one pension plan in 1985 and compare the changes of their pension generosity for DB, DC and 401(k) plans between 1985 and 1996. OLS Regression Models are adopted to analyze the generosity of employers' primary plan and supplemental plan and Chow test is conducted to test the structural changes between 1985 and 1996. Our results find that plan age and union status have positive impacts on employers' generosity ofDB and 401(k) plans. For financial variables, pretax income is an important consideration to employers' generosity disregarding the type of plan. In addition, we find that there was a structure change ofDB plans between 1985 and 1996 and that union status,plan age, financial etc. industry, proportion of fixed assets and pretax income have greater positive impacts on employers' generosity ofDB plans in 1996 than in 1985. For employees' retirement income, the matching rates have grown over the last two decades and this stands for that employees covered by 401(k) plans have received better retirement benefit over the last two decades. Key words: Pension trends; Employers' generosity; Defined benefit plan; Defined contribution plan; 401(k) plan