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A History of Public sector Pensions in the United States. By Robert L. Clark, Lee A. Craig, and Jack W. Wilson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. ix + 259 pp. Index, appendix, references, figures, tables. Cloth, $49.95. ISBN 0-812-23714-5.
One of the most dramatic changes in the labor force over the last century has been the rising number of retirees. In 1900, about two-thirds of American men aged sixty-five and over were actively employed; today, fewer than 20 percent of men still work. Scholars have long regarded the development of pension plans as a major reason for the retirement trend. Public pensions, in particular, have attracted attention, because they laid the groundwork for the later development of private pensions and the Social security system. In A History of Public sector Pensions in the United States, Robert L. Clark, Lee A. Craig, and Jack W. Wilson narrate a sweeping history of public pensions in the United States, from Colonial Era military pensions to the emergence of municipal pension plans for police, firefighters, teachers, and other government employees in the twentieth century.
Clark, Craig, and Wilson list the three goals they had in mind when writing this book: compiling a reference volume on the history of American public-sector pensions; identifying policy lessons relevant to modern pension analysts; and providing a chronology of the theory and practice of pension-fund management. In carrying out these objectives, the authors manage to tell an interesting story, complete with tales of piracy, political rivalry, pension-fund embezzlement, bankruptcy, and bailout.
In investigating the subject, the authors only had recourse to a literature that is often sparse, dated, and disjointed. Perhaps their most valuable...