Select Working Papers
Giesecke, Oliver, and Joshua D. Rauh. 2022. "How Much Do Public Employees Value Defined Benefit versus Defined Contribution Retirement Benefits?", Working Paper.
- Informational website about the pension study survey instrument
Rauh, Joshua D. 2022. "Taxes and Net Migration in California." Working Paper.
Andonov, Aleksandar and Rauh, Joshua D. 2022. "The Shifting Finance of Electricity Generation." Working Paper.
Recent Commentary and Policy Writing
Joshua Rauh and Jillian Ludwig, 2023, "The California State Budget And Revenue Volatility: Fiscal Health In A Deficit Context", Hoover Institution Report.
Joshua Rauh, 2023, "Florida Shows How to Combat Woke Indoctrination on Campus," Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2023
Joshua Rauh and Jillian Ludwig, 2022, "Homelessness in California: Practical Solutions for a Complex Problem", Hoover Institution Report.
Joshua Rauh, "Why We Should Preserve Shareholder Capitalism," Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress," March 16, 2022
Joshua Rauh and Kevin Warsh, "The Inflation Mess and a Financial Refuge," Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2022.
Joshua Rauh and Mels de Zeeuw, "Net Zero Will Make Wall Street Richer at Main Street's Expense,"Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2021.
Aharon Friedman and Joshua Rauh, "The Biden Administration's Global Tax Imperialism,"National Review, June 28, 2021.
Joshua Rauh, "Municipal Bond Investors Have to Share the Burden in State Bailouts,"The Hill, September 17, 2020.
Journal Publications
25. Giesecke, Oliver and Rauh, Joshua D. 2022. "Trends in State and Local Pension Funds." Annual Review of Financial Economics 15, forthcoming.
24. Rauh, Joshua D. and Shyu, Ryan. 2022. "Behavioral Responses to State Income Taxation of High Earners: Evidence from California," Conditionally Accepted, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
23. Andonov, Aleksandar and Rauh, Joshua D. 2021. "The Return Expectations of Public Pension Funds." Review of Financial Studies 35(8), 3777-3822.[online appendix]
22. Rauh, Joshua, 2021. "Discussion of ‘The Sustainability of State and Local Government Pensions: A Public Finance Approach, by Lenney, Lutz, Scheule and Sheiner,"Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring 2021: 57-64.
21. Andonov, Aleksandar and Kraussl, Roman and Rauh, Joshua D. 2021"Institutional Investors and Infrastructure Investing." Review of Financial Studies 34(8), 3880-3934.
20. Rauh, Joshua D. and Stefanescu, Irina and Zeldes, Stephen P. 2020. "Cost Saving and the Freezing of Corporate Pension Plans." Journal of Public Economics 188.
19. Giroud, Xavier and Rauh, Joshua D. 2019. "State Taxation and the Reallocation of Business Activity: Evidence from Establishment Level Data." Journal Political Economy 127(3): 1262-1316. [SSRN Working Paper Version, NBER Working Paper #21534, online appendix, public data file]
18. Andonov, Aleksandar and Hochberg, Yael V. and Rauh, Joshua D. 2018. "Political Representation and Governance: Evidence from the Investment Decisions of Public Pension Funds." Journal of Finance 73(5): 2041-2086. [SSRN Working Paper Version, online appendix]
17. Novy-Marx, Robert and Rauh, Joshua D. 2014. "Linking Benefits to Investment Performance in US Public Pension Systems." Journal of Public Economics 116: 47-61. [NBER Working Paper #18491]
16. Novy-Marx, Robert and Rauh, Joshua D. 2014. "The Revenue Demands of Public Employee Pension Promises." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 6(1): 193-229. [SSRN Working Paper Version, NBER Working Paper #18489]
15. Kaplan, Steven N. and Rauh, Joshua D. 2013. "It's the Market: The Broad-Based Rise in the Return to Top Talent." Journal of Economic Perspectives 27(3), 35-56.
14. Kaplan, Steven N. and Rauh, Joshua D. 2013. "Family, Education, and Sources of Wealth among the Richest Americans, 1982-2012." American Economic Review P&P 103(3), 158-162. [Data on Forbes 400 available here]
13. Hochberg, Yael V. and Rauh, Joshua D. 2012. "Local Overweighting and Underperformance: Evidence from Limited Partner Private Equity Investments." The Review of Financial Studies 26(2), 403-451. [SSRN Working Paper Version, NBER Working Paper #17122, online appendix]
12. Rauh, Joshua D. and Sufi, Amir. 2010. "Explaining Corporate Capital Structure: Product Markets, Leases, and Asset Similarity." Review of Finance 16(1), 115-155. [SSRN Working Paper Version, online appendix]
11. Novy-Marx, Robert and Rauh, Joshua D. 2012. "Fiscal Imbalances and Borrowing Costs: Evidence from State Investment Losses." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4(2), 182-213. [SSRN Working Paper Version, NBER Working Paper]
10. Novy-Marx, Robert and Rauh, Joshua D. 2011. "Public Pension Promises: How Big Are They and What Are They Worth?" Journal of Finance, Forthcoming. [SSRN Working Paper Version, State breakdown of $2.5 trillion unfunded public pension liablity at the state level]
- Winner, 2011 Smith Breeden Prize, First Prize Paper for the best capital markets paper published in the Journal of Finance State breakdown of $2.5 trillion unfunded public pension liability at the state level
9. Novy-Marx, Robert and Rauh, Joshua D. 2011. "Policy Options for State Pension Systems and Their Impact on Plan Liabilities." Journal of Pension Economics & Finance 10(2), 173-194. [SSRN Working Paper Version, NBER Working Paper #16453]
8. Rauh, Joshua D. and Sufi, Amir. "Capital Structure and Debt Structure." The Review of Financial Studies 23(12), 4242-4280. [SSRN Working Paper Version, NBER Working Paper #14488, public dataset]
7. Novy-Marx, Robert and Rauh, Joshua D. 2009. "The Liabilities and Risks of State-Sponsored Pension Plans." Journal of Economic Perspectives 23(4), 191-210.
6. Kaplan, Steven N. and Rauh, Joshua D. 2010. "Wall Street and Main Street: What Contributes to the Rise in the Highest Incomes?" The Review of Financial Studies 23(3), 1004-1050. [SSRN Working Paper Version, NBER Working Paper #13270]
5. Rauh, Joshua D. 2009. "Risk Shifting versus Risk Management: Investment Policy in Corporate Pension Plans." The Review of Financial Studies 22(7), 2687-2733. [SSRN Working Paper Version, NBER Working Paper #13240"]
4. Poterba, James and Rauh, Joshua D. and Venti, Steven and Wise, David. 2007. "Defined Contribution Plans, Defined Benefit Plans, and the Accumulation of Retirement Wealth." Journal of Public Economics 91(10), 2062-2086.
3. Rauh, Joshua D. 2006. "Own Company Stock in Defined Contribution Pension Plans: A Takeover Defense?" Journal of Financial Economics 81(2), 379-410.
2. Bergstresser, Daniel and Desai, Mihir A. Desai and Rauh, Joshua D. 2006. "Earnings Manipulation and Managerial Investment Decisions: Evidence from Sponsored Pension Plans." Quarterly Journal of Economics 121(1), 157-195. [SSRN Working Paper Version, NBER Working Paper #10543]
- Winner, 2004 Barclays Global Investor Best Symposium Paper of the European Finance Association
1. Rauh, Joshua D. 2006. "Investment and Financing Constraints: Evidence from the Funding of Corporate Pension Plans." The Journal of Finance 61(1), 33-71. [SSRN Working Paper Version]
- Winner, 2006 Brattle Prize, First Prize Paper for the best corporate finance paper published in the Journal of Finance
- Winner, 2004 Western Finance Association Award for best corporate finance paper
Some Popular Writing and Interviews
"Don't Use Coronavirus as Excuse to Bail Out State, Local Governments that Have Mismanaged Finances for Decades", Fox Business, 13 April 2020
"Commentary: Congress Should Let the Airlines Go to Bankruptcy Court", Chicago Tribune 26 March 2020
"Hidden Debt, Hidden Deficits: How Pension Promises Are Consuming State And Local Budgets.", 2017 Edition, Hoover Institution Essay
Unfunded Pension Debts of U.S. States Still Exceed $3 Trillion, 25 August 2015, Forbes Investing blog hosted by the Pension Research Council
Funding Retiree Healthcare Plans (with Robert Pozen), Defining Ideas, 19 August 2015
Relief for Cities’ Budget Busting Health Care Costs (with Robert Pozen), Wall Street Journal, 26 July 2015
Averting the Public Pension Crisis without a National Insurance Agency, Advancing a Free Society, 6 August 2013
Podcast on EconTalk with Russ Roberts, 5 November 2012
Start Paying or Stop Promising, New York Times Room For Debate, 27 February 2011
Materials on Retirement Finance
Webinar: Investment Strategies for Long-Term Financial Planning, 7 November 2013 with Josh Rauh (Moderator), William F. Sharpe, John Ameriks, and John Cuniff.
Webinar: The Crisis in Public Employee Pensions, 5 December 2013 with Josh Rauh (Moderator), Richard Ravitch, Sean McShea, David Crane, and Mark Dingley.
Other Publications
Biggs, Andrew G. and Rauh, Joshua D. 2020. "Funding Direct Payments to Americans through Social Security Deferral."
Why City Pension Problems Have Not Improved, and a Roadmap Forward, 2015, in Public Pensions and City Solvency, ed. Susan Wachter, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
The Broad-Based Rise in the Return to Top Talent, 2015, in Inequality and Economic Policy: Essays in Memory of Gary Becker, ed. Stanford: Hoover Press.
Financial Valuation of PBGC Insurance with Market-Impllied Default Probabilities (with Robert Novy-Marx and Jules van Binsbergen), 2014, Tax Policy and the Economy 28, 133-154.
The Crisis in Local Government Pensions in the United States (with Robert Novy-Marx), 2011, in Growing Old: Paying for Retirement and Institutional Money Management after the Financial Crisis, Robert Litan and Richard Herring, eds., Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.
- Contains city and county breakdown of $0.6 trillion unfunded liabilities at the local level
- Related comment in the New York Times Room for Debate Blog
- Covered in the Washington Post, 12 October 2010
- Front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer, 13 October 2010
Are State Public Pensions Sustainable? Why the Federal Government Should Worry About State Pension Liabilities, National Tax Journal 63(3), 2010 (Forum).
Utility Evaluation of Risk in Retirement Saving Accounts, 2005, in Analyses in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise (ed), University of Chicago Press.
Lifecycle Asset Allocation Strategies and the Distribution of 401(k) Retirement Wealth (with James Poterba, Steven Venti and David Wise) in Developments in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise (ed), University of Chicago Press, forthcoming.
How Elastic is the Corporate Income Tax Base? (with Jonathan Gruber) in Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century, Cambridge University Press, Alan Auerbach, James R. Hines, and Joel Slemrod (eds.), 2007.
Why Are Firms in the United States Abandoning Defined Benefit Plans? Rotman Journal of Pension Management 2(2), 2009, 18-25.
Some Resources on the State Pension Crisis
The Pension Bomb, The Milken Institute Review, 2011Q1
Opinions and Blog Posts
The Looming Shortfall in Public Pension Costs, Washington Post, 19 October 2012.
On Pensions, When Will We Face Reality
- Posted on New York Times Room For Debate, 7 February 2011.
Return Assumptions: It’s All Just Borrowing in Disguise, Posted on Everything Finance, 20 September 2010
Can the Illinois Pension Catastrophe Be Stopped, Chicago Tribune, 13 Aug 2010.
Pension Security Bonds: A New Plan to Address the Pension Crisis (with Robert Novy-Marx), The Economists’ Voice 7(3), 2010.
- Very short version on the New York Times blog “Room for Debate”, 20 May 2010
Illinois’ Irrelevant Pension Reform
-Posted on Everything Finance, 15 April 2010
The Day of Reckoning for State Pension Plans
-Posted on Everything Finance, 22 March 2010
A Bankruptcy to Save GM, 19 November 2008
Other Papers
The Effects of Financial Condition on Capital Investment and Financing: Evidence from Variation in Pension Fund Asset Performance
Novy-Marx, Robert and Rauh, Joshua D. 2008. "The Intergenerational Transfer of Public Pension Promises" Chicago GSB Research Paper No. 08-13. [NBER Working Paper #14343]
Novy-Marx, Robert and Rauh, Joshua D. 2014. "Funding Soft Liabilities"