Finance Seminar with Terrance Odean, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

On June 3, 2016 Terrance Odean will present "Made Poorer by Choice: Worker Outcomes in Social Security v. Private Retirement Accounts"

Friday, June 3, 2016 - 11:00 to 12:15

The Department of Finance is proud to announce the upcoming seminar with Terrance Odean, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley.

Terrance Odean will present:

PDF icon Made Poorer by Choice: Worker Outcomes in Social Security v. Private Retirement Accounts

ABSTRACT
Can the freedom to choose how retirement funds are invested leave workers worse off? Via simulation, we document that choice in stock v. bond allocation and type of equity investments in private accounts leads to lower utility and greater risk of income shortfalls relative to private accounts without choice. We also compare private account outcomes to currently promised Social Security benefits to demonstrate that a representative worker (an average wage earner) benefits more from private-account alternatives—with or without choice—than do most workers. Thus, representative worker outcome should not be used to assess population-wide benefits of private account alternatives.

The page was last edited by: Department of Finance // 05/27/2016