In a two-period model with uncertainty about life expectancy, we analyze several measures that are typically included in a social security reform: tax incentives for private life annuities, a cut in the social security benefits, and an increase in the social security tax. First, we look at the...

We compare a social security system where people can retire at an age of their own choice with one in which there is a legal retirement age elected through a majority voting process. We show that individuals prefer a legal retirement age higher than the one they would choose in the flexible...

Adopting a portfolio choice approach to pension design, we derive illuminating closed form solutions for optimal pay-as-you-go social security programs. We demonstrate that the nature of the implied risk-sharing effects and their magnitudes are sensitive to the stochastic specification of...

We propose an extended pay-as-you-go social security system that conditions pension benefits on the aggregate wage sum and on the wage of one's children. The latter increases parents' incentives to provide their children with good within-family education. However, since wages depend...

Individuals in most all countries face a wide range of direct taxes on their income, especially variants of the individual income tax and payroll taxes. For the income tax, attempts are often made to reduce the compliance and administrative costs of the tax by using presumptive, or simplified,...

This paper develops an overlapping-generations model characterized by endogenous growth, unemployment, and pollution. The paper focuses on the replacement ratio, which measures the proportion of after-tax work earnings replaced by unemployment benefits, and considers a replacement-ratio-neutral...

Using an OLG model with pension system and unemployment insurance, this paper analyses the effect of low-skilled immigration (regular and irregular) shocks on the wellbeing of the native people. We show that low-skilled immigration benefits the pensioners of the initial period and skilled native...

The paper aims to assess tax-favored retirement accounts in a general-equilibrium overlapping-generations economy with idiosyncratic income risk and borrowing constraints. Our simulations indicate that tax-favored retirement accounts as implemented in many OECD countries will have a significant...

We analyze the impact of increased pension uncertainties on saving and retirement decisions, both in isolated and in joint decision problems. In the absence of other risks, saving is increased and retirement is delayed when social security pensions get more risky. If saving and retirement...

We address the question of how the generosity of the German public pension systems' benefit rule has changed during the past three decades. In order to do so, we firstly outline the social security reforms of the past 50 years. Then, we illustrate political risk by measuring the volatility of...