The U.S. Social Security Trust Fund faces depletion over the coming decades, and there is a near consensus that social security reform is necessary. Under one suggestion for partial privatization, current surpluses would fund private, individual retirement accounts, and the private savings would...

An assessment of the effects of proposed reductions in income and Social Security taxes on middle-income Americans and of cuts in health care spending, using the generational accounting method to examine their likely impact on both current and future national saving rates.

When the poor succeed in building up a few assets, they often find themselves disqualified from badly needed government programs. Confusing rules about IRAs and 401(k)s plus conflicting state regulations make retirement saving particularly challenging.

Three new plans for reforming Social Security financing recommend investing a portion of future payroll deductions in the financial markets. The plans aim to shore up Social Security's trust fund, improve individual returns, and enhance national saving. This analysis concludes, however, that the...

We build a general equilibrium model of overlapping generations that incorporates endogenous saving, labor force participation, work hours, and Social Security benefit claims. Using this model, we study the impact of three Social Security reforms: 1) a reduction in benefits and payroll taxes; 2)...

An examination of how intergenerational altruism and borrowing constraints shape the interest rate, savings, and welfare response to funded and unfunded Social Security programs.