The Role of Earnings and Financial Risk in Distributional Analyses of Social Security Reform Measures

44 Pages Posted: 16 Sep 2005

See all articles by Thomas L. Hungerford

Thomas L. Hungerford

National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI); Independent

Date Written: September 2005

Abstract

The Social Security Trustees project that the Social Security program faces long-term financing difficulties. Several proposals offered to shore-up the finances of the Social Security program would create individual retirement accounts funded with part of the payroll tax. The authors of many of these proposals claim that future beneficiaries will be better-off under their new system than under the current system. This study examines the consequences of differing earnings patterns and year-to-year differences in asset returns have for Social Security retired worker benefits in three Social Security reform proposals. Incorporating both actual earnings histories and variation in asset returns shows that none of the three individual account plans can always deliver benefits that are higher than payable current law benefits.

Keywords: Social Security, retirement, Social Security reform, retirement income

JEL Classification: J3

Suggested Citation

Hungerford, Thomas L., The Role of Earnings and Financial Risk in Distributional Analyses of Social Security Reform Measures (September 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=800888 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.800888

Thomas L. Hungerford (Contact Author)

National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) ( email )

1776 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Suite 615
Washington, DC 20036-1904
United States

Independent ( email )

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
128
Abstract Views
1,023
Rank
424,771
PlumX Metrics