The public economic burden of shifting trends in population health remains uncertain. Sustained increases in obesity, diabetes, and other diseases could reduce life expectancy – with a concomitant decrease in the public-sector’s annuity burden – but these savings may be offset by worsening...

This paper shows that, beyond the institutional stability of Social Security, changes in the private sector as well as the emergence of a new financial paradigm have transformed both the U.S. pension system and the political debate about its future. Although no major reform of Social Security...

We describe the trajectory of pension reform in the United Kingdom, which has focussed on keeping the cost of public pension programmes down during a period of steady population ageing whilst attempting to maintain an adequate minimum level of income security for low income households in...

Australia’s retirement income system has several distinctive features – most notably a policy of government mandated private saving and a means-tested Age Pension – which have gained increasing international attention. This paper provides an overview of the institutional features of the...

This is a review article of three books that deal with the problems facing the U.S. Social Security system. One deals with the OASDI (Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) financial shortfall and proposes an alternative plan with both a tier one benefit and a tier two provision based on...

This is a review article of three books that deal with the problems facing the U.S. Social Security system. One deals with the OASDI (Old- Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) financial shortfall and proposes an alternative plan with both a tier one benefit and a tier two provision based on...