Megan E. Hatch

Retirement Replacement Rates and Retirement Wealth Inequality Among Baby Boomer and Other Birth Cohorts

The retirement readiness of baby boomers has been a topic of considerable but inconclusive research. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the authors evaluate the relative retirement readiness of five discrete birth cohorts: Depression babies (born 1926–1935); World War II babies (born 1936–1945); two halves of the baby boom generation (older, born 1946–1955, and younger, born 1956–1965); and Gen-Xers (born 1966–1975). They construct a comprehensive measure of retirement wealth that combines both accumulated private net worth and the annuity values of Social Security and defined-benefit pensions at age 65. The authors then calculate replacement rates as the ratio of annuitized wealth at age 65 to average preretirement income. They find that median replacement rates decline steadily over the four birth cohorts from World War II babies to Gen-Xers and that younger generations appear to be considerably less well situated for retirement than baby boomers and earlier cohorts. By comparing ratios of replacement rates at the 99th and 50th percentile, the authors determine that retirement wealth inequality in the top half of the wealth distribution increases steadily across the five birth cohorts, reaching a peak among Gen-Xers.

Evaluating Lease-Purchase Financing for Professional Sports Facilities

In 2012, the city of Seattle, Washington, entered into a public–private partnership (P3) whose goal was the construction and operation of a new sports arena. The cornerstone of the P3 was a unique lease-purchase financing (LPF) agreement markedly different from lease-purchase contracts that governments typically use for acquiring capital goods. This article has a twofold objective. First, it details Seattle’s agreement and contrasts it with other relevant P3s. Second, it identifies a number of potential sources of additional public costs and risks overlooked in the subsidy debate. Because it offers local governments and franchise owners a number of benefits, it is anticipated that Seattle’s lease-purchase model will be used by other municipalities in the future. This case study can be used in future LPF subsidy debates to improve public-sector outcomes.

For Richer or Poorer: The Politics of Redistribution in Bad Economic Times

This paper examines the consequences of economic downturns for states’ redistributive politics. We track state policies from 1980 through 2010 and illustrate how economic downturns led states to adopt budget-balancing policies by suppressing both the increased spending on programs benefiting the poor otherwise expected under Democratic Party control and the tax cuts for the wealthy otherwise expected under Republican Party control. We also undertake a natural experiment case study—comparing the forty Democratic and Republican governors in office right before (2007–2008) and after (2009–2010) the onset of the Great Recession. We find that Republican governors were less likely to propose spending and increased calls for spending cuts; yet, no similar shift in tax proposals was evident with continued calls for tax cuts to the wealthy. Democratic governors exhibited a similar pattern, but were less responsive and more likely to maintain their earlier policy proposals even after a significant downturn in the national economy. Together, these findings highlight how economic and political conditions interact with one another to shape “who gets what, when, and how from government,” as well as clarify that we must ask and answer these questions separately for taxing and spending to capture the complex politics of redistribution.

Source of Income Discrimination and Fair Housing Policy

The housing choice voucher program was designed with two main goals in mind: to eliminate concentrations of poverty and the social problems it causes and to provide poor households with greater access to higher-opportunity neighborhoods. However, research suggests that voucher holders would like to move to higher-opportunity neighborhoods, but often are unable to do so. One of the most prominent reasons for this is that, in most cities and states, local law allows landlords to discriminate against potential tenants on the grounds of their “source of income” (SOI). This article reviews the literature on discrimination of voucher recipients and the potential for SOI antidiscrimination laws to mitigate some of these negative outcomes.

Statutory Protection for Renters: Classification of State Landlord–Tenant Policy Approaches

Abstract There are many federal, state, and local laws governing the landlord–tenant relationship. Yet scholars know little about their variety and what impact differences among jurisdictions have on renters and rental housing markets. This article examines state-level landlord–tenant policy approaches to determine whether there is significant policy variation and whether states illustrate identifiable policy types. Using cluster and discriminant analysis, this research creates a typology of landlord–tenant policy approaches, finding three distinctive approaches: protectionist, probusiness, and contradictory. This research indicates there is significant variation among state landlord–tenant statutory policies, although states’ laws generally reflect one of three philosophies. These results are important for future studies on rental housing because treating all state rental environments the same masks important differences in rental experiences across states. As an illustration, this article finds that renters in protectionist and contradictory states move significantly more than renters in probusiness states do. Furthermore, understanding where renters have more or less legal protection allows policymakers and advocates to focus their efforts on areas where assistance is most needed.