This paper was inspired by the discovery of some accounting books relating to the 'Rucellai' Family Farm (in Tuscany), and examines accounting in proprietorship farming in the nineteenth century. By conducting a source recognition, it was possible to demonstrate the role of agricultural...

Edward Lazear’s analysis of the virtues of private accounts for social security exagerates the degree to which African Americans subsidize white Americans and largely ignores the value of Social Security as an annuity that individual beneficiaries cannot exhaust.

A life-cycle portfolio for personal accounts within Social Security, such as President George Bush has proposed, would adjust risk exposure as a function of the worker’s age. This would involve the government in making complex dynamic portfolio decisions for individuals. The conventional rule...

This paper compares fully-funded (FF) and pay-as-you-go (paygo) pension plans in a Keynesian framework for an economy with overlapping generations and excess capacity. The model addresses both short/medium-run equilibria and steady-states. Income distribution and class conflict, two crucial...

The life-cycle accounts proposal for Social Security reform has been justified by its proponents using a number of different arguments, but these arguments generally involve the assumption of a high likelihood of good returns on the accounts. A simulation is undertaken to estimate the...

This paper explores the general equilibrium impact of social security portfolio diversification into private securities, either through the trust fund or via private accounts. The analysis depends critically on heterogeneity in saving, in production, in assets, and in taxes. Under fairly general...

Edward Lazear's analysis of the virtues of private accounts for social security exagerates the degree to which African Americans subsidize white Americans and largely ignores the value of Social Security as an annuity that individual beneficiaries cannot exhaust.

A life-cycle portfolio for personal accounts within Social Security, such as President George Bush has proposed, would adjust risk exposure as a function of the worker's age. This would involve the government in making complex dynamic portfolio decisions for individuals. The conventional rule of...

Under Social Security privatization, workers would be allowed to divert some of the money that currently goes to Social Security into private accounts. This would expose them to market risk, that is, the risk of a substantial drop in equity prices or of a prolonged bear market. This could result...