In firms subject to tariff regulations, the authorities have developed “regulatory” accounting methods, to identify accepted costs and possible supernormal lrates of return. These methods are also useful in industries free from price regulation, because information about the economic rate of...

One of the most (if not the most) highly charged public debates in this country over the past decade has been about the role of economic imperatives in dismantling the foundations of the welfare state set out in the universalist model adopted in the post-war years. Ken Battle in his chapter is...

This paper compares Social Security benefits relative to those paid from private investments: specifically, whether 2003 retirees would gain more retirement income if they had invested their payroll taxes in private accounts during their working years. Three different retirement ages and four...

This study investigates the reliability of using short-term averages of earnings as a proxy for permanent earnings in empirical research. An earnings dynamics model is estimated on a large sample of men covering the period from 1983 to 1997 following the cohort-based methodology of Baker and...

Corporations institutionalize managerial and professional positions in a hierarchical pyramid in which many young professionals begin work at a lower and wider level of the pyramid where positions are numerous. However, as the professionals start climbing up the pyramid in their careers, the...

Long-term projections of pension expenditure are essential to evaluate the sustainability of social policies and potential reforms. The paper examines the main projections made in Italy and highlights the progress made and the problems remaining. It argues that forecasts played an important role...

Some Social Security reforms would provide guarantees that individuals would not receive less under a reformed system than would be provided by current law. However, the “current law” benefit formula increases benefits when wages rise. Any reform successfully adding to economic growth,...

This paper examines the potential impact of government matching contributions on personal-account participation in the President's Commission on Strengthening Social Security's Model 3 for Social Security reform. Given the government's choice of four plan-design parameters, the magnitude of the...

This article discusses the most recent pension reforms in Austria, which were mainly triggered by the need to alleviate the budgetary pressure stemming from the age structure of the Austrian population. Using synthetic indicators, derived from the government’s budget constraint, the paper...