Social Security

109 Pages Posted: 3 Sep 2001 Last revised: 6 Aug 2022

See all articles by Martin S. Feldstein

Martin S. Feldstein

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (deceased); Harvard University (deceased)

Jeffrey B. Liebman

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: September 2001

Abstract

This paper, a forthcoming chapter in the Handbook of Public Economics, reviews the theoretical and empirical issues dealing with Social Security pensions. The first part of the paper discusses pure pay-as-you-go plans. It considers the effects of introducing such a plan on the present value of consumption, the optimal level of benefits in such plans, and the emprical research on the effects of pay-as-you-go pension systems on labor supply and saving. The second part of the paper discusses the transition to investment-based systems, analyzing the effect on the present value of consumption of such a transition and considering such issues as the distributional effects and risk associated with such systems.

Suggested Citation

Feldstein, Martin S. and Liebman, Jeffrey B., Social Security (September 2001). NBER Working Paper No. w8451, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=281856

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