Zachary Christensen
Managing Director, Pension Integrity Project, Reason Foundation
Zachary Christensen is a Managing Director of Reason Foundation's Pension Integrity Project.
Christensen’s work with Reason's Pension Integrity Project aims to promote solvent, sustainable retirement systems that provide retirement security for government workers while reducing long term costs for taxpayers and employees. Zachary and his team provides education, reform policy options, and actuarial analysis for policymakers and stakeholders to help them design reform proposals that are practical and viable.
The Pension Integrity Project has provided technical assistance to several successful pension reform efforts in recent years, including in Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, South Carolina, Texas and other states tackling persistent pension solvency challenges.
Christensen has contributed to in-depth solvency analysis of the Arizona PSPRS, Arkansas TRS, Louisiana TRSL, Texas ERS, and Texas TRS pension plans.
Christensen's work has been published in the Los Angeles Daily News, Orange County Register, NJ.com, Colorado Politics, and many other publications. He has also been featured in the Carolina Journal and the Michigan Capitol Confidential. His research has been published by the Hoover Institution, The Platte Institute, Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Rio Grande Foundation.
Prior to joining Reason Foundation, Christensen was a pension finance analyst at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where he worked on widely-cited research on the funding status and accounting methods for public sector retirement systems.
Christensen holds an M.S. in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and a B.S. in Political Science from Brigham Young University.
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Reason Introduces Interactive Visualization of Colorado’s Unfunded Pension Liability
The visualization uses annual PERA reports to break down the sources of the system’s added unfunded liabilities over the past 20 years.
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Pension Reform Newsletter – March 2018
Three states introduce major pension reform bills.
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New Jersey and the Rate of Return Rollback
A pension fund’s assumed rate of return is meant to represent the most accurate average long-term return on assets, but sometimes political factors are put ahead of accurate financial projections.
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Pension Reform Newsletter – February 2018
Michigan enacts local pension transparency standards and California’s school districts spend more on retirees.
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State Funded Ratios Over Time
The evolution in funded ratios for state pension plans from 2001-16
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Which States Are Hiding the Most Pension Debt
How Much Do Reported Pension Obligations Increase When Using a Market Valuation of the Promised Benefits
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