Course Overview
This class will present an overview of retirement benefits provided to public employees in the U.S., and the policy issues related to these benefits.
Retirement benefits are an embedded feature of state and local government in the U.S. and are inherent, if not always obvious, in a range of public policy matters at all levels of government. LBJ School graduates are likely to encounter these benefits in their professional careers in one or more ways, including the following:
- positions involving fiscal analysis will contend with the costs of retirement benefits for public employees;
- those involved in policy analysis may confront the policy implications of retirement plan design and financing;
- an employer-sponsored retirement plan will serve as a component of compensation for virtually all graduates who are employed in the public sector, meaning these graduates will participate in, contribute to, and may receive a benefit from one or more public retirement plans;
- those employed in public sector management or human resources positions will contend in one or more ways with the role of the retirement benefit on the employer’s ability to attract, retain, and retire employees; and
- the ability of state and local governments to issue bonded debt, and the cost of that debt, is affected by the condition of their pension plan.
Retirement plan policy for public workers is a primary factor in the ability of government at all levels to achieve key objectives. These objectives include a) serving as a vital human resources management tool for public employers; b) promoting retirement security for the portion of the nation’s workforce who are employed in the public sector; and c) accomplishing these objectives at a cost that is reasonable and predictable.
Public retirement administration and policy involves a wide range of disciplines, including, but not limited to accounting, actuarial science, finance, investment management, human resource management, legal, political economy, economics, and public administration. The primary objectives of this course are to a) to acquaint students with the retirement benefits that are provided in the public sector in the U.S.; b) to establish a baseline understanding among students of the role of the US Social Security system regarding public employees; c) to foster understanding of the size, scope and various effects of public pension plans and their administration, including actuarial, accounting, investing, and public policy aspects; and d) to explore retirement plan designs and their relative ability to meet stakeholder objectives.
Students are expected to read the assigned reading before each class. Each student will be expected to present and lead a class discussion of at least one of the assigned readings; this will be part of the attendance and class participation score.
Learning Outcomes
Following this course, students will be able to:
- Describe the landscape of retirement benefits provided to public employees in the U.S.
- Understand the different types of retirement plans and their relative advantages and disadvantages.
- Know the effects of retirement benefits policies
- Recognize the challenges faced by the public sector regarding its ability to attract and retain a workforce and to pay for promised retirement benefits
- Articulate the primary disciplinary components of public retirement system administration.