Is there an opening to seek a compromise on social security with the Republicans? This former Clinton administration economist thinks there may well be. It will not be to everyone's liking, he says, but it may be the best we can hope for.

We reexamine the distributional effects of the 2001 and 2003 tax changes, incorporating two factors omitted in standard distributional estimates: the financing of the tax changes, and the implications of behavioral responses for both after–tax income and other aspects of well–being. Using...

The President's proposal to replace the current exclusion of employer–paid health insurance premiums with a standard deduction for qualifying health insurance would level the playing field for employment–based coverage and private plans but would risk the loss of insurance for many workers,...

This paper analyzes proposals to remedy tax–induced distortions in health care by using new tax incentives and retaining all of the existing distortionary tax incentives. In the process of remedying some distortions, this approach magnifies others—most notably increasing the total tax...

America faces large budget deficits and a near-record low rate of net national savings at the same time that tens of millions of families are approaching retirement with little or no financial cushion for their retirement. Some proposed solutions, like carving private accounts out of Social...

Under traditional formulations, lower capital income tax rates reduce the user cost of capital and stimulate investment. The traditional approach, however, implicitly or explicitly considers a revenue–neutral reduction in capital income taxation. We extend the traditional approach by...

This article explores the trade-offs associated with government issuance of longevity bonds as a way of stimulating private annuity supply in the presence of aggregate mortality risk. We provide new calculations suggesting a 5 percent chance that aggregate mortality risk could "ex post" raise...