WILLIAMSTOWN - The Social Security Administration has awarded Williams College Assistant Professor of Economics David Love a grant of $40,000 in support of work by Love and Federal Reserve economist Paul Smith on the effects of risky pensions on household saving and labor supply decisions.

Recent pension freezes in large firms such as Verizon and IBM, along with terminations of defined benefit plans in the struggling steel and airline industries, demonstrate that even traditional pensions are not risk-free.

A primary goal of this research will be to estimate the welfare implications associated with the recent spate of pension freezes.

Love has been on the Williams faculty since 2003 and teaches several levels of macroeconomics as well as a senior seminar on national savings.

Love has worked as an economist with the Federal Reserve Board and as a visiting assistant professor at Columbia Business School.

His interests focus on macroeconomics, public finance, household savings, and portfolio choice.

His work has published in a number of academic journals including the National Tax Journal, Journal of Monetary Economics, and Journal of Pension Economics and Finance.

He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1996 and his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 2003.