A basic difference between a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) public pension system and one with fully funded private accounts lies in the startup. From its inception, a PAYGO system can pass contributions from current workers to current retirees. A funded system must either spend decades accumulating tax...

The evidence continues to mount. As our industrial economy continues to dump large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, we are affecting the atmospheric chemistry of the global climate. This has led prominent physicist and climate scientist James Hansen to reach the “startling conclusion”...

We introduce a tractable model of post-retirement saving behavior in which households have a precautionary motive arising from uninsured health status risks. The model distinguishes between annuitized and non-annuitized wealth, emphasizes the importance of asset composition in determining...