Impact of inflation on private pensions of retirees, 1970-74: findings from the retirement history study.

Many private pension plans have provided benefit increases or other forms of protection against inflation to their retired workers in recent years. This article, based on panel data from the Retirement History Study, examines the extent to which completely retired persons in their sixties benefited from these increases from 1970 to 1974. The private pension benefits of retirees rose slightly during the period, but their purchasing power declined sharply on account of the considerable growth in the inflation rate. Social security benefits, on the other hand, rose substantially more than the consumer price index. As a result, total retirement benefits largely maintained or nearly maintained their purchasing power.