The national debate over Social Security reform remains centered on the distributive structure the program. Individual-level support or opposition for privatization can be viewed as a choice between an uncertain outcome in which market forces determine the value of one's future benefit, and a...

This paper uses a heterogeneous-agent overlapping-generations model to examine the fiscal and distributional consequences of introducing a means test in US Social Security. I find that a means test, that is, conditioning benefit payments on a household's earnings or assets, leads to a higher...

Despite its centrality in monetary policy, communication is not a focus in social security reform. We investigate the potential for active communication to dissipate apparently widespread public confusion about the future of social security. We implement a simple information treatment in which...