Distingiishing quot;spotquot; versus quot;contractquot; views of the labor market is of critical importance to a host of economic issues ranging from wage flexibility over the business cycle to firm financial valuation. The structural features of U.S. private pension plans permit surprisingly...

Kotlikoff and Wise document the continued backloading of pension benefits and the extent of retirement incentives by examining pension accrual in over 1,500 companies with defined benefit plans. They also perform a detailed analysis on the retirement plan of a "Fortune 500" company.