401(k) plan asset allocation, account balances, and loan activity in 2009

CONSISTENT SAMPLE: Because 401(k) balances can fluctuate with market returns from year to year, meaningful analysis of 401(k) plans must examine how participants' accounts have performed over the long term. Looking at consistent participants in the EBRI/ICI 401(k) database over the six-year period from 2003 to 2009 (which included one of the worst bear markets for stocks since the Great Depression), the study found: After rising in 2003 and for the next four consecutive years, the average 401(k) retirement account fell 27.8 percent in 2008, before rising 31.9 percent in 2009. The average 401(k) account balance moved up and down with stock market performance, but over the entire six-year time period increased at an average annual growth rate of 10.5 percent, attaining $109,723 at year-end 2009. The median (or midpoint, half above and half below) 401(k) account balance increased at an average annual growth rate of 14.7 percent over the 2003-2009 period to $59,381 at year-end 2009. THE BULK OF 401(K) ASSETS CONTINUED TO BE INVESTED IN STOCKS: On average, at year-end 2009, 60 percent of 401(k) participants' assets were invested in equity securities through equity funds, the equity portion of balanced funds, and company stock. Thirty-six percent was in fixed-income securities such as stable-value investments and bond and money funds. MORE THAN THREE-QUARTERS OF 401(K) PLANS INCLUDED TARGET-DATE FUNDS IN THEIR INVESTMENT LINEUP AT YEAR-END 2009: At year-end 2009, nearly 10 percent of the assets in the EBRI/ICI 401(k) database was invested in target-date funds and 33 percent of 401(k) participants held target-date funds. Also known as lifecycle funds, they are designed to simplify investing and to automate account rebalancing. NEW EMPLOYEES CONTINUED TO USE BALANCED FUNDS, INCLUDING TARGET-DATE FUNDS: Across all but the oldest age group, more new or recent hires invested their 401(k) assets in balanced funds, including target-date funds. At year-end 2009, about 42 percent of the account balances of recently hired participants in their 20s were invested in balanced funds, compared with 36 percent in 2008, and about 7 percent in 1998. At year-end 2009, 31 percent of the account balances of recently hired participants in their 20s was invested in lifecycle funds, compared with almost 23 percent at year-end 2008. 401(K) PARTICIPANTS CONTINUED TO SEEK DIVERSIFICATION OF THEIR INVESTMENTS: The share of 401(k) accounts invested in company stock continued to shrink, falling by half of a percentage point (to 9.2 percent) in 2009. That continued a steady decline that started in 1999. Recently hired 401(k) participants contributed to this trend: They tended to be less likely to hold employer stock. PARTICIPANTS' 401(K) LOAN ACTIVITY ROSE IN 2009: In 2009, 21 percent of all 401(k) participants eligible for loans had a loan outstanding against their 401(k) account, compared with 18 percent at year-end 2008 and year-end 2007. Loans outstanding amounted to 15 percent of the remaining account balance, on average, at year-end 2009, compared with 16 percent at year-end 2008. Loan amounts remained in line with the past few years in terms of typical dollar amounts.     

Feeding,growth, and trophic position of redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus) in watersheds of differing land cover in the lower Piedmont,USA

One pervasive outcome in the urbanization of an ecosystem is the proliferation and numerical dominance of select tolerant organisms that are often native to the system yet with reduced relative abundances in less-disturbed conditions. As a result of high variation in environmental conditions between urbanized and non-urbanized systems, it is possible that the functional role of a ubiquitous organism is context dependent. Such is the case for redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus) in small streams in many parts of the Piedmont of the southeastern USA. To investigate this hypothesis, we evaluated the feeding, growth, and trophic position of redbreast sunfish in 3 streams of increasing levels of watershed urbanization (forested, suburban, urban) in the Lower Piedmont of western Georgia, USA. Through gut contents analysis, we found that sunfish consumed primarily Chironomidae (Diptera) larvae across all streams. However, fish in the suburban stream consumed more terrestrial prey than fish in the forest and urban streams, which corresponded to lower aquatic prey abundances in the suburban stream. Although there was no difference in mean fish age among streams, otolith analysis revealed that fish in the urban stream were larger at age than those in the forest stream. Last, stable isotope analysis revealed that fish in the urban stream occupied a lower trophic position than the other 2 streams. These results suggest that despite the fact that the primary prey resource was similar for sunfish in each stream, their potential functional role, as evidenced by size at age and trophic position, is context dependent.

     

Out-migration from and return migration to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria: evidence from the consumer credit panel

Population and Environment - In this research brief, we contribute to a much-needed, initial, and growing inventory of data on Puerto Rican migration after Hurricane Maria. Using data from the...     

Morphogenetic theory and the constructivist institutionalist challenge

This article engages with two meta‐theoretical approaches to social analysis, ‘morphogenetic theory’ and ‘constructivist institutionalism’, and specifically explores how the former fares under the critical scrutiny of the latter. The key proponent of constructivist institutionalism, Colin Hay, has offered two detailed critiques of morphogenesis that criticise its position on the foundational sociological issues of structure‐agency and material‐ideational. Although Hay's critiques are largely rejected in an overall defence of the morphogenetic approach, the process of engagement is seen to be particularly useful for morphogenetic theory because it allows a number of important clarifications to be made and it also opens up space for theoretical development. In the course of this debate, accessible introductions are given to both theories, and the similarities and differences between them are outlined, providing clarity to both. Therefore, although this article ultimately operates as a defence of morphogenetic theory, especially in the form proposed by Margaret Archer and Douglas Porpora, it finds a great deal of fruitful discussion in the constructivist institutionalist challenge.     

A characterization of trust,and its consequences

Trust is understood in terms of a) acceptance of dependency in b) the absence of information about the other’s reliability in order to c) create an outcome otherwise unavailable. The first of these is the cost of trust; the second, the situation of uncertainty it faces and may overcome; the third, its purchase. This account permits: distinction between trust and similar relations with which it is frequently confused; discovery of the basis of trust in the emotional apprehension of confidence; and demonstration of the relationship between trust and both social capital and rationality, with counter-intuitive results.

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Bayesian analysis of a growth curve model with power transformation, random effects and AR(1) dependence

In this paper we devote ourselves to a general growth curve model with power transformation, random effects and AR(1) dependence via a Bayesian approach. Two priors are proposed and both parameter estimation and prediction of future values are considered. Some numerical results with a set of real data are also given.     

Distance Learning: Education or Economics?

Sir John Daniel, Vice Chancellor of the Open University in England, pronounced that American universities are in a crisis of access, flexibility and cost. His solution is that American Universities and Colleges should employ educational technologies that allow students to earn college degrees without visiting the college campus (distance learning). The argument is that distance learning is a cost-effective way of providing more students with access to higher education. Sir John's argument illustrates a crisis in neither access, flexibility, nor cost. On further inspection, distance learning degree programs appear to be a strategy for reducing the cost of higher education by replacing professors with computers and part-time teachers. This strategy offers limited educational benefits for the student and may present a financial danger to smaller colleges and universities, if they succumb to the pressure to develop distance, learning degree programs. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.