Presentation at Delta State University, Cleveland, Miss., Oct. 19, 2004

The scope of the supplementary pension funds is to provide workers with a satisfactory standard of living at retirement. An efficient and affordable system of pension funds is therefore an important factor to realize the workers’ aims of maximizing the value of their pension wealth. A...

This paper investigates whether exchanging the Social Security delayed retirement credit, currently paid as an increase in lifetime annuity benefits, for a lump sum would induce later claiming and additional work. We show that people would voluntarily claim about half a year later if the lump...

The future of the social security system is a big issue in industrial world. Population aging raises the question of the adjustment, or even the replacement of unfunded public pension schemes. The ratio between over-60-year-olds and the working age is expected to double between now and 2040, and...

The objective of the paper is to present findings from a health promotion programme for long-term unemployed older job seekers in Germany and to discuss conditions for successful linking health and employment promotion.

This paper investigates the role of recent pension reforms for the development of the social security system and economic growth in Austria. We use a computable general equilibrium model that is built up of overlapping generations that differ by their household structure, longevity, educational...

We investigate the responsiveness of individual retirement decisions to changes in financial incentives. A reform increased women's normal retirement age (NRA) in two steps from age 62 to age 63 first and then to age 64. At the same time retirement at the previous NRA became possible at a...

Employment to population ratios differ markedly across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, especially for people aged over 55 years. In addition, social security features differ markedly across the OECD, particularly with respect to features such as...

In a quantitative model of Social Security with endogenous health, I argue that Social Security increases the aggregate health spending of the economy because it redistributes resources to the elderly whose marginal propensity to spend on health is high. I show by using computational experiments...

Cost for the three major mandatory social programs; Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have increased at a rate much higher than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and thus revenue. As a result, these programs account for a larger portion of the U.S. budget. As projections continue to rise...