Social Security

Citation:

Feldstein M, Liebman J. Social Security. 2001.

Abstract:

This paper, a forthcoming chapter in the Handbook of Public Economics, reviews the theoretical and empirical issues dealing with Social Security pensions. The first part of the paper discusses pure pay-as-you-go plans. It considers the effects of introducing such a plan on the present value of consumption, the optimal level of benefits in such plans, and the emprical research on the effects of pay-as-you-go pension systems on labor supply and saving. The second part of the paper discusses the transition to investment-based systems, analyzing the effect on the present value of consumption of such a transition and considering such issues as the distributional effects and risk associated with such systems.

Website

Notes:

NBER Working Paper No. 8451

"The Handbook of Public Economics," edited with Alan Auerbach, Vol. 4, 2002.

Last updated on 12/04/2012