The 1998 grant produced a manuscript for a book,
Public Pensions in the United States: Colonial Times Until 1920, based in part on the papers listed below. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the U.S. government sponsored a pension plan for naval personnel that was funded through the sale of prizes captured on the high seas. These monies were placed in the Navy Pension Fund. Initially, all funds were used to purchase U.S. government debt; however by 1809, the trustees began to purchase shares of local banks. The experience of this government pension fund and the use of its funds to purchase private equities is very interesting and provides many useful parallels for the twenty-first century debate on restructuring the Social Security system.
Published papers produced from this grant and authored by the researches are as follows:
"Privatization of Public Sector Pensions: The U.S. Navy Pension Fund, 1800-1842," Independent Review, 3:4, Spring 1999, pp. 549-564.
"Managing a Pension Portfolio in the Nineteenth Century: The U.S. Navy Pension Fund," Business and Economic History, 28:2, Fall 1999, pp. 94-104.
"The Life and Times of a Public-Sector Pension Plan Before Social Security: The U.S. Navy Pension Plan in the Nineteenth Century," in Olivia Mitchell and Edwin Hustead eds. Pensions in the Public Sector, University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 2000.
