Pension Design and Structure: New Lessons from Behavioral Finance

Olivia S. Mitchell is Executive Director of the Pension Research Council, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania , and also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her academic research explores private and publica insurance, risk management, public finance and labour markets, and compensation and pensions, with both a US and international focus. She recently served on President Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security.Stephen P. Utkus is the Director of the Vanguard Center for Retirement Research, where he conducts and sponsors research on retirement savings and retirement benefits. His current reserach interests include attitudes and expectations regarding retirement, financial markets, and employer-sponsored retirement plans; the psychological and behavioral aspects of participant decision-making; trading and investment behavior among retirement plan participants; fiduciary issues arising from retirementprograms; and global trends in public and private pension plans. Mr Utkus is a member of the advisory board of the Wharton Pension Research Council, and he is currently a Visiting Scholar at The Wharton School.