Poor health, large acute and long-term care medical expenses, and spousal death are significant drivers of impoverishment among retirees. We document these facts and build a rich, overlapping generations model that reproduces them. We use the model to assess the incentive and welfare effects of...

The analysis provides a new explanation for two widespread problems concerning European unemployment policy: the disappointingly small effect of many past reform measures on unemployment, and the political difficulties in implementing more extensive reform programs. We argue that the heart of...

The paper proposes a method to speed up the transition toward the notional contributions pension system in Italy. It seems the most appropriate manner to combine and pursue employment and financial sustainability goals. The method computes percentages for abating the old retributive pensions...

This paper estimates the fiscal burden of the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Social Insurance Pension System that was closed in 2008 to new members, and analyzes the appropriateness of the 2008 reforms that introduced the new Social Security Pension System in the TRNC. To calculate the overall deficit,...

This paper examines the decline of National Insurance in Britain, as witnessed by its declining share of all social security spending and the steady dilution of the ¿contributory principle¿ on which it was originally based. It argues that this decline is not an accident: under governments of...

Turkish social security system has been developed under various social security institutions to provide social insurance against various social risks since 1945. Although the system has just 62 years history, it is in such situation that it is just able to provide its services with income...

Today’s demand for social insurance is supported by economic reasoning showing that private insurance markets do not provide efficient coverage for medical insurance, for inter-generational risk sharing and for income instability. It is unfashionable to say but government intervention in these...

This paper computes the optimal progressivity of the income tax code in a dynamic general equilibrium model with household heterogeneity in which uninsurable labour productivity risk gives rise to a nontrivial income and wealth distribution. A progressive tax system serves as a partial...

In most industrial countries, while the calculation of pension bene…ts is progressive, public pension systems redistribute weakly from high to low- income earners. They are close to actuarial fairness. This statement results from the following speci…city: less paid jobs are also heavier and...

There have been a number of proposals in policy circles that involve raising the Social Security retirement age. This is viewed as both a way to reduce or eliminate the projected shortfall in the program and also a response to projected increases in longevity. This paper examines the impact of...