The Public Pension Crisis: Contractual Rights and Constitutional Limits

A timely response to the pressing issue of public pension reform, The Public Pension Crisis explores the complex relationship between contract law and government pensions, specifically focusing on the Contract Clause and related state Pension Clauses. Analyzing over a decade of litigation, the book highlights the evolving role of pension contracts in constitutional law and examines more than 70 landmark cases to establish a clear, principled framework for determining when pension benefits qualify as contractual obligations. T.

The Changing Nature of Firm Innovation: Short-Termism and Influential Innovation in U.S. Public Firms

We examine the link between short-term pressures and technologically significant innovation in U.S. public firms in 1997–2015. Using a market-based measure of short-term pressure, we estimate its relationship with influential and novel patents. We find that firms facing more intense short-term pressures are less likely to patent highly influential or novel innovations. To evaluate whether this relationship is causal, we use changes in ownership styles following financial institution mergers as instruments.

Public Pension Contract Minimalism

The national pension debt and COVID crises have collided. Post-pandemic economic decline has escalated existing financial strains on state and local pension plans, impacting workers and the public welfare. With unfunded obligations exceeding one trillion dollars, many of these plans are in jeopardy. But the movement to reform government pension contracts has yet to adopt an anchoring idea, leaving judicial decisions in disarray and policymakers without guidance about how to shore up troubled retirement systems. The crux of the problem is the many meanings of contract under state and U.S.

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