This paper examines five problems with the inflation indexing procedures used by the Social Security Administration of the United States in taking inflation into account when calculating Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Benefits. Because of Problem #1, the commingling of unindexed with...

"The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this. You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email. Social Security is widely believed to protect its recipients from inflation because benefits are indexed to the Consumer Price Index for...

This paper examines five problems with the indexing procedures used by the Social Security Administration of the United States in taking inflation into account when calculating Old Age and Survivor Insurance (OASI) Benefits. Because of the commingling of unindexed with indexed earnings, a...