This paper examines the impact of the social security system on household saving in the United States. The theoretical properties of the transition period after large changes in benefits have not been sufficiently examined in earlier work; if the long-run result of a change is a fall in the...

The behavior of business fixed investment in the United States in the 1980s is examined. A background discussion of the long-term behavior of the components of business fixed investment is provided, setting the context for the empirical analysis. A standard neoclassical model of business fixed...

The provisions of the U. S. Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA) have potential effects on labor supply, household consumption and saving, and business fixed investment. The literature on the possible effects of tax reform is surveyed, and a model of U. S. business fixed investment is developed and...

An analysis of issues regarding the measurement of saving concludes that the observed declines in national, private, and personal saving rates in the United States cannot be attributed to measurement problems. Several factors that seem to have accounted for the decline in U.S. personal saving...