This paper examines the efficiency gains from linking marginal Social Security benefits to marginal Social Security payroll taxes. In the U.S. the current combined employer-employee OASI payroll tax rate is 10.4 percent. Recent estimates suggest that the average marginal income tax rate is...

Does Social Security redistribute across cohorts? Or is it a program for purchasing the jobs' of the elderly? I formalize both models, showing how they have some predictions in common the most important of which is that generational accounts have the appearance of a pyramid scheme.' I also...

Among numerous retirement schemes in France, the Social Security general regime" covers all wage earners from the private sector, about 65% of workers. In this regime are eligible for a full pension at 65, or between 60 and 65 if they contributed to the regime for at" least 37.5 years. For...

The U.S. Social Security Administration, in cooperation with similar agencies in other countries, recently developed estimates of social security benefits for twelve major industrial countries. The present paper uses these data to estimate the effects of social security benefits on saving and...

This study examines whether social security influences the aggregate retirement rate in Canada. The life-cycle model of individual behavior provides the foundation for this study. The model indicates how social security can affect an individual's decision to retire. Further, the model is used to...

The data show that an increase in government provided old-age pensions is strongly correlated with a reduction in fertility. What type of model is consistent with this finding? We explore this question using two models of fertility, the one by Barro and Becker (1989), and the one inspired by...

166 countries have some kind of public old age pension. What economic forces create and sustain old age Social Security as a public program? Mulligan and Sala-i-Martin (1999) document several of the internationally and historically common features of social security programs, and explore...

This paper simulates the effects of proposals to modify procedures for adjusting the Social Security benefits of those who work after normal retirement age. A basic set of policies, currently under consideration, is projected to raise long run costs by $30 billion dollars net of taxes, while...

A funded social security retirement program would imply a larger capital stock and a higher level of real income than an unfunded program that provides the same level of benefits. The transition from an unfunded program to a funded program that does not reduce the benefits of existing retirees...

We present a detailed analysis of the incentives that Social Security provides for continued work at older ages. We do so using information on older males from the Health and Retirement Study over the 1980-1997 period to calculate the changes in the present discounted value of Social Security...