These continue to be difficult times for the labor markets of the industrialized nations. Shifts in labor demand, deregulatory impulses, and the ongoing process of globalization have each impacted the labor markets of the United States and Europe. In the face of the globalization of economic...

Social Security provides insurance against idiosyncratic income risk but exposes workers to systematic risk because benefits are indexed to the evolution of aggregate earnings. I calibrate a life-cycle model to compare workers' certainty equivalent valuation of Social Security to its net present...

Life is quite good in the United States compared to other OECD countries, thanks to strong economic growth and technological progress having lifted average income to high levels. Nonetheless, there is evidence that the benefits from growth have not been sufficiently broad based. Self-reported...

"The welfare state has today become a political cudgel used to assign blame for ballooning national debt and tout the need for personal responsibility. Despite objections, social insurance-from workers' compensation laws to pension, disability, and unemployment benefits, to healthcare and...