What is the future of Social Security systems in OECD countries? In our view, the answer belongs to the realm of politics. We evaluate how political constraints shape the Social Security system in six countries – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US – under population aging. Two...

With the leading edge of the baby boom generation reaching retirement age, decisionmakers need a comprehensive understanding of their social, economic, and health characteristics – both in terms of resources and needs – in order to adopt effective public policies and private services to meet...

In this paper, we estimate the effect of benefits and work incentives counseling services on labor market outcomes of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries participating in the vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs in the period...

Assumptions about international migration are an increasingly important component of the demographic projection module. Yet most official immigration projections both in the United States and abroad rely on ad-hoc assumptions based on little theory and virtually no definable methodology. The...

This study uses restricted microdata from the National Compensation Survey to examine the impact of auto enrollment on employee compensation. By boosting plan participation, automatic enrollment likely increases employer costs when previously unenrolled workers receive matching retirement plan...

Both unemployment insurance (UI) extensions and the availability of disability benefits have disincentive effects on job search. But UI extensions can reduce the efficiency cost of disability benefits if UI recipients delay disability application until they exhaust their unemployment benefits....

In 2010, only 19 percent of individuals ages 50-58 whose household incomes were less than 300 percent of the poverty line participated in a pension of any kind at their current jobs, compared to 56 percent of those above 300 percent of poverty. This paper investigates this pension gap. In...

This project uses the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine the decision to retire after job separation among the increasing number of older individuals who leave a job between 55 and 70, and how this decision varies by labor market conditions and the resources available to the...

States and localities account for pensions in their financial statements according to standards laid out by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Under these standards, state and local plans generally follow an actuarial model and discount their liabilities by the long-term yield...