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The 2015 Pension 40: Teresa Ghilarducci

No. 33 Teresa Ghilarducci, Labor Economist / New School for Social Research

By Tyler Davies

December 22, 2015

< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

Teresa Ghilarducci

Labor Economist / New School for Social Research

Last year’s rank: 39

A longtime advocate of adequate retirement benefits for American workers, author and economics professor Teresa Ghilarducci serves on committees and study groups hoping to solve the U.S. retirement-income-security crisis. For example, she’s a member of the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings, which is looking to improve Social Security, defined benefit pensions and defined contribution plans. “We’re on the road to what everyone expects has to happen,” says the ever-upbeat Ghilarducci, 58, who taught at the University of Notre Dame for 25 years before moving to New York’s New School for Social Research, where she heads the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. She argues for the creation of a system “with adequate accumulation, investment and payout structure. It’s not rocket science. It’s the elements of very good pension design.” Ghilarducci finds she can present her ideas about pension design in an ever-growing number of forums. Currently Ghilarducci is an unpaid adviser to the Hillary Clinton campaign and a longtime member of the Government Accountability Office’s retirement policy advisory panel. In February she was tapped by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer to serve with five other academics to help design a retirement plan for full-time workers without access to workplace plans.

The 2015 Pension 40