Social Security

Feldstein, Martin S.; Liebman, Jeffrey B.

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Social Security

NBER Working Paper No. w8451

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: 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