Alicia H. Munnell is the Peter F. Drucker Professor at the Carroll School of Management and Director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. She has combined a career in government with academia, serving as Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Economic Policy, and a Member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Her most recent books are Coming Up Short: The Challenge of 401(k) Plans (Brookings Institution Press, 2004), Death and Dollars: The Role of Gifts and Bequests in America (Brookings Institution Press, 2003), and Framing the Social Security Debate: Values, Politics and Economics (Brookings Institution Press, 1998). Address is Main Campus, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. Email: munnell@bc.edu

Gordon L. Clark is the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. He is also affiliated with the Institute of Ageing and the Said Business School at Oxford. Recent publications include Pension Fund Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2000), European Pensions & Global Finance (Oxford University Press, 2003), the co-edited Pension Security in the 21st Century (Oxford University Press, 2003) and ‘Pension fund governance’, Journal of Pension Economics and Finance (2004). He has been involved in many research programs on private pensions sponsored by governments and various financial service companies. Current research is on the UK pensions ‘crisis’ for the French government, and the governance and competence of pension fund decision-making for the National Association of Pension Funds. Address is Oxford University Centre for the Environment, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK. Email: gordon.clark@ouce.ox.ac.uk

J. Michael Orszag is Head of Global Research Services and Chairman of the Global Research Committee of Watson Wyatt Worldwide. Mike Orszag is a founding editor of the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance (Cambridge University Press). He is also Visiting Professor at Imperial College Business School, Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, and a member of the scientific advisory board of the Center for Pensions and Superannuation at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, the Center for Retirement Research, Boston College, USA and the Swedish Premium Pension Fund (PPM). Address is Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Watson House, London Road, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 9PQ, UK. Email: michael.orszag@watsonwyatt.com