Source: Gregory B. Lewis and Rayna L. Stoycheva, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Advance Access, First published online: May 28, 2016
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From the abstract:
Public pension plans face pressures to cut costs. Although government costs and retiree benefits drive changes in retirement plans, policy makers should also consider impacts on turnover and retirement behavior. In the mid-1980s, Congress moved new federal employees from a traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plan to a new hybrid plan, comprised of a smaller DB plan, Social Security, and a new defined contribution (DC) plan. Early analyses of the change from the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) found a decrease in turnover rates, but our analysis of a 1% sample of federal personnel records from 1979 to 2009 indicates that exit rates for federal employees in their late 30s to early 50s are one-third higher under FERS than they were for comparable employees under CSRS. Conversions to fully DC plans by state and local governments could have even larger impacts on the stability of their workforces.