Several programs have been introduced by U.S. fiscal and monetary authorities in response to the financial crisis. We examine the responses involving Treasury debt - the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), the Supplemental Financing Program, increases in Treasury issuance, and open market...

Recently, the federal government began redirecting health care tax subsidies towards tax–exempt Health Savings Accounts (HSA). This tax program requires selection of high–deductible policies—shifting government tax subsidies away from the premium (pure insurance) component and towards the...

Some state and local governments continue to consider moving from income and property taxes, respectively, towards consumption taxes. Since the mid-1970s Georgia's local governments have had the option to substitute sales taxes for a portion of property tax receipts; the adoption of local option...

Over the last decade, public pension systems have shifted away from equities and fixed income in favor of alternative investments. We construct panel data of legislative changes affecting pensions, merging these with fund level data from the Public Plans Database. Using these in tandem with data...

Over the last decade, Defined Benefit (DB) public pension systems have come under greater stress. Pensions have experienced two recessions, demographic shifts and generally bad public budget circumstances. Pensions have modified their allocation strategies over this period, generally shifting...

The link between unemployment and pension accumulations is conceptually straightforward; periods of unemployment lead to lower pension contributions, and thus to lower accumulations. However, impacts on accumulation may differ as a result of the timing and frequency of unemployment spells. We...

Current debate on the Social Security Administration's long-term finance of benefits includes proposals for independent private investment via individual accounts. The author first investigates what implications disability might have for equity savings account balances. In light of results,...