Pension Research Council 2008 Symposium: The Future of Public Employee Retirement Systems

We were unable to give people the heads up on this conference before it happened because we were unaware of it, but thankfully Jon Forman (Oklahoma) was able to send us information about the symposium.

The 2008 Symposium: The Future of Public Employee Retirement Systems, which occurred on May 1-2, 2008:

[E]xamined the challenges facing public retirement systems in the US and around the world. After tracing the evolution of public sector pensions and retiree health programs, the discussion compared public with private sector pay and benefits. Next the speakers took up public policy concerns regarding accounting and management in public employee plans in the United States, focusing on ways to properly measure liabilities and how to make the plans more cost effective. The discussion also included analysis of defined contribution versus defined benefit plans for the public sector, and funding of federal retirement systems, both civilian and military.  International lessons were brought to bear with a discussion of reforms in the German, the Japanese, and the Canadian public employee plans.

This conference was a Wharton Impact Conference sponsored by the Wharton School's Pension Research Council and Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research.

The conference was co-hosted by Gary Anderson and Olivia S. Mitchell at The Wharton School.

Session I: The Past and Future of Public Retirement Systems

Session II: New Developments in Public Plan Management

Session III: International Perspectives on Public Retirement Systems

Session IV: Reform Paths for Public Plans

Session V: Costs and Benefits of Public Retirement Systems

Session VI: Roundtable

For More Information about the presentations at the Symposium, please contact:  Pension Research Council, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 3000 Steinberg Hall - Dietrich Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6302, Tel: 215.898.7620, Fax: 215.573-3418, Email: prc@wharton.upenn.edu.

PS