Understanding the provision of postretirement health care and pension benefits: which firm characteristics are most explanatory?

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of firm work force characteristics, human resource practices, and external environmental attributes upon the likelihood that a company provides postretirement income and health care benefits. Using data from a national stratified random sample of 953 companies with 20 or more employees, logistic regression models were estimated to explore the impact of these three sets of variables on benefit provision. Results indicate that work force characteristics and human resources practices contribute considerably to the likelihood that these benefits are provided and that the impact of some of the more global characteristics, such as industry, diminishes in a fuller predictive model.