John McCaskill, Teodoro Benavides, James Harrington
{"title":"Texas Public Pensions: A Common Pool Resource Perspective","authors":"John McCaskill, Teodoro Benavides, James Harrington","doi":"10.1177/02750740241273976","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Public employee pension management is the nexus of public and private financial management systems that are significant long-term components of public finance. The idea that these pension systems can look quite similar yet perform in quite different and conflicting ways is significant when designing policy; system design templates are not successful in complex systems. Even pension systems within the same city can have radically different states of actuarial health based upon small differences in the rules (or adherence to the rules) establishing them. To better understand such systems, viewing them from a common pool resource perspective is useful. Elinor Ostrom (1990) , in her seminal book Governing the Commons, provides eight principles that facilitate governing common pool resources. The general theme running through Ostrom's principles is the need to facilitate the building and channeling of social capital. By facilitating constructive collective choice, the goal of effective, sustainable collective action is achievable. In this study, we examine the political, cultural, and institutional structures that are in place in the pension systems of Dallas and Houston, Texas. We examine the pensions’ governance practices to determine which appear to violate Ostrom's ideal institutional arrangements and their impact on the pensions’ long-term sustainability. Pertinent survey information from pension beneficiaries conducted as part of this research are provided","PeriodicalId":22370,"journal":{"name":"The American Review of Public Administration","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The American Review of Public Administration","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02750740241273976","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Public employee pension management is the nexus of public and private financial management systems that are significant long-term components of public finance. The idea that these pension systems can look quite similar yet perform in quite different and conflicting ways is significant when designing policy; system design templates are not successful in complex systems. Even pension systems within the same city can have radically different states of actuarial health based upon small differences in the rules (or adherence to the rules) establishing them. To better understand such systems, viewing them from a common pool resource perspective is useful. Elinor Ostrom (1990) , in her seminal book Governing the Commons, provides eight principles that facilitate governing common pool resources. The general theme running through Ostrom's principles is the need to facilitate the building and channeling of social capital. By facilitating constructive collective choice, the goal of effective, sustainable collective action is achievable. In this study, we examine the political, cultural, and institutional structures that are in place in the pension systems of Dallas and Houston, Texas. We examine the pensions’ governance practices to determine which appear to violate Ostrom's ideal institutional arrangements and their impact on the pensions’ long-term sustainability. Pertinent survey information from pension beneficiaries conducted as part of this research are provided
公职人员养老金管理是公共和私人财务管理系统的纽带,是公共财政的重要长期组成部分。这些养老金制度可能看起来非常相似,但执行起来却大相径庭,相互冲突,这一点在设计政策时意义重大;在复杂的制度中,制度设计模板并不成功。即使是同一个城市的养老金体系,也可能因为建立规则(或遵守规则)的细微差别而导致精算健康状况截然不同。为了更好地理解这些制度,从共同资源的角度来看待它们是非常有用的。埃莉诺-奥斯特罗姆(Elinor Ostrom,1990 年)在其开创性著作《治理公共资源》(Governing the Commons)中提出了八项有利于治理公共资源的原则。贯穿奥斯特罗姆原则的总主题是需要促进社会资本的建设和引导。通过促进建设性的集体选择,可以实现有效、可持续的集体行动目标。在本研究中,我们考察了得克萨斯州达拉斯市和休斯敦市养老金体系中的政治、文化和制度结构。我们研究了养老金的管理实践,以确定哪些似乎违反了奥斯特罗姆的理想制度安排,以及它们对养老金长期可持续性的影响。作为本研究的一部分,我们向养老金受益人提供了相关的调查信息。