美国州与地方政府公务员养老金系统及其风险管理

Risk Management in U.S. State and Local Government Pension Systems

公务员的养老金管理是政府的财政预算管理中的重要部分。论文介绍了美国州和地方政府养老金系统的运作方式,并着重从利益、融资以及投资三方面讨论在养老金管理中所涉及的风险和风险管理的政策和机制。养老金的风险主要包括利益风险、融资风险和投资风险。这些风险由受益者(雇员)和支付者(政府)共同承担。通过适当的风险评估机制、报告机制、监控机制以及风险分散化,可以有效地把风险控制在合理的范围,从而减少政府的公共服务成本,减轻纳税人的负担,提高公共雇员的退休保障。美国州和地方政府的实践从各个方面体现了这个事实,也为其他国家的养老金管理提供了经验和借鉴。论文的数据来源包括全国性的调查报告以及对内布拉斯加州奥马哈市养老金系统的调研。

Public pension plans are an integral part of financial management in state and local governments. The goal of a public pension system is to provide retirement security to public employees with reasonable costs. This article discusses U.S. state and local pension systems, with special attention to the policy tools and mechanisms that are designed to minimize the risks to the beneficiaries and to the sponsoring governments. These include benefit risks, funding risks, and investment risks. These risks can be controlled by several approaches, including risk assessing, monitoring, reporting and risk sharing. In this respect, pension management practice of the state and local governments in the U.S. can offer some lessons to pension reforms in other countries, including China. In this article, national surveys and reports are used as data sources to describe the overall situation. In particular, pension management in the City of Omaha, Nebraska is discussed as a case to demonstrate how pensions are managed in a local government.