David John

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Retirement savings, pensions, annuities, international pension and retirement savings systems

ABOUT

David John is a senior strategic policy advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute, where he works on pension and retirement savings issues. He also serves as a deputy director of the Retirement Security Project (RSP) at the Brookings Institution, which focuses on improving retirement savings in the United States, especially among moderate- and low-income workers.

Before joining AARP, John was a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He has extensive public policy experience working for a money center bank, a law firm, a credit union trade association, and four members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

John has written and spoken extensively about the importance of reforming the nation’s retirement programs. He is coauthor with J. Mark Iwry of the Automatic IRA, a small business retirement savings program for firms that do not sponsor any other form of retirement savings or pension plan. He is also an editor of the 2009 book Automatic: Changing the Way America Saves (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press). John has been published and quoted extensively in the media. He is also a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

John holds an MBA in finance, a master's degree in economics, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism—all from the University of Georgia.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

• Achieving Economies of Scale in State-Facilitated Retirement Savings Programs: The Case for Multi-State Collaboration
• Higher Initial Contribution Levels in Automatic Enrollment Plans May Result in Greater Retirement Savings: A Review of the Evidence
• Improving the Saver’s Credit for Low- and Moderate-Income Workers

Read David John’s blog posts. 

CONTACT

For media inquiries, call 202-434-2560 or e-mail media@aarp.org.