The critics of President Bush’s Social Security reform proposal claim there will be massive cuts in “guaranteed” benefits of 40% or more. That is absurd. Nobody’s benefits need to be cut and nobody’s taxes need to be raised. Current tax rates, given projected economic growth, are sufficient...

The present paper reviews key issues in pension design and pension reform encountered all across the world. The paper heavily refers to the recent U.S. Social Security reform debate in general and to the Personal Retirement Accounts proposal in particular. A particular emphasis is put on...

Pension reform is high on the policy agenda of many advanced and emerging market economies. In advanced economies the challenge is generally to contain future increases in public pension spending as the population ages. In emerging market economies, the challenges are often different. Where...

This paper analyzes various reform options for Japan’s public pension in light of large fiscal consolidation needs of the country. The most attractive option is to increase the pension eligibility age in line with high and rising life expectancy. This would have a positive effect on...

The paper considers an elementary New-Keynesian three equation model and compares its Bayesian estimation to the results from the method of moments (MM), which seeks to match finite set of the model-generated second moments of inflation, output and the interest rate to their empirical...