We analyze in this whitepaper a way of addressing both targeting and financing in a direct payment (or “stimulus check”) program to provide households with additional liquidity during the economic downturn associated with the COVID-19 virus: by allowing voluntary loans to individuals in...

It is generally accepted that the Social Security program pays women a higher average ratio of lifetime benefits to lifetime taxes than it does men. Social Security's progressive benefit structure and annuity payment combine with women's lower average earnings and longer average life spans to...

Due to falling prices, Social Security will make no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to retirement benefits in 2010. Retirees, who feel their benefits are too low and believe the prices they pay are rising, are up in arms. Newspaper headlines announce, "Millions face shrinking Social Security...

Although the Social Security program is progressive - meaning that the replacement rate of preretirement earnings offered by Social Security tends to rise as lifetime earnings decline - this relationship is erratic. While individuals with lower lifetime earnings receive better treatment on...

The Social Security Statement is sent annually to approximately 150 million Americans over age 25 and represents most individuals' key source of information regarding the Social Security program and the benefits to which they may be entitled. The Statement includes estimates of the future...

The Social Security Statement is sent annually to each individual over age 25. The Statement contains information regarding the Social Security program, the individual's past covered earnings and contributions, and an estimate of the individual's future retirement benefits. Given the complexity...

In this Outlook, I use a detailed microsimulation model of the population to estimate the effects of increasing the Social Security Earliest Eligibility Age (EEA) from sixty-two to sixty-five on Social Security's finances, retirement income, and the economy. Increasing the EEA would extend the...

Social Security's Old Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund is projected to be exhausted in 2033. Without intervening legislative action, current law dictates that benefits at that time would need to be reduced by approximately 21 percent. It is commonly assumed that such benefit reductions...

Using the Social Security Administration's MINT (Modeling Income in the Near Term) model, this paper calculates the marginal returns to work near retirement, as measured by the increase in benefits associated with an additional year of employment at the end of an individual's work life. With...