Joshua Cutler (Boise; Google Scholar), How To Turn 100 Million Workers Into Passive Shareholders:

It is widely recognized that the United States retirement system has rapidly shifted away from defined benefit pension plans and towards defined contribution plans and Individual Retirement Accounts. Less recognized is the fact that most of these retirement plans now invest in essentially the same assets: passive index funds, predominantly based on equity indexes such as the S&P 500. There is growing concern that this system could pose serious risks for the entire financial system, yet it has received no scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators, who have instead acted to foster it. Despite the massive size and importance of the retirement system, there is little understanding of how and why it has taken its current form. This article aims to understand the sources of the current retirement savings regime by analyzing for the first time the history of its development. 

This analysis reveals three consistent factors helping to shape the current system. First, a long-running, elite-led belief in the value of encouraging employee capital ownership; second, academic theories favoring low-cost investing in broad market indexes; and third, the influence of large financial institutions.

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