This paper examines the distributional characteristics of parametric reforms carried out when a planner faces an unexpected adverse shock to the pay-as-you-go system. When transfers are used to balance the system, we show that, even if the planner chooses a Ponzi scheme in the face of permanent...

Chile was the first country to introduce structural pension reform based upon a funded pillar. Implemented in 1981, Chilean pension reform inspired many other Latin American countries. During the nineties, an important literature analysed the positive and negative aspects of pension funds in...

Because of the several shortcomings of aggregate time-series investigations, cross-section studies outnumber the time-series analyses on the relationship between saving and Social Security. This study is the first of its kind for an emerging country that examines the subject at two major points:...

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...

Social Security has been an extremely popular program over its 70 years of existence. It has provided retirement, life insurance and disability benefits to workers and their families. Through the years, benefits have been expanded and adjusted, new groups of workers have been covered, and taxes...

The system’s financial structure is fundamentally unsound. Legislation of 1977 and 1983 attempted to address this by raising taxes and cutting benefits; Social Security was to be on sound financial footing well in to the 21st century. And now, just a few years later, The 1994 Board of...