US Pension Reform

by Baily, Martin Neil

• ISBN13: 9780881324259
• ISBN10: 0881324256
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-11-01
• Publisher: Peterson Inst for Intl Economics

Summary

Analyzes social pension reforms of twelve other countries, assesses the current US Social Security program, and evaluates opportunities for adaption of current system.

Author Biography

Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration and one of three members of the council from '94 to '96. Senior fellow at the Peterson Institute (2001-2007) and current senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Academic advisor to the Congressional Budget Office and associate editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Lessons from the World	p. 1
Structure of the Book	p. 6
Key Findings	p. 8
Policy Implications	p. 22
Reference	p. 30
Fiscal and Demographic Challenges	p. 31
Assessing Countries' "Fiscal Starting Point"	p. 32
True Cost of Public Pensions Today	p. 42
Value of the 'Pension Promise"	p. 55
The Demographic Outlook	p. 64
Understanding the Impact of Looking at Effective Retirement Ages	p. 78
Synthesis of Fiscal and Demographic Challenges	p. 85
References	p. 91
Pension Data in Detail	p. 95
Methodological Assumptions for OECD Pension Modeling	p. 101
Why the Decline in the Number of Children Is Unlikely to Help Offset the Public Expenditure Levels in Most OECD Countries	p. 104
The Distributional Challenge	p. 107
The Two Philosophies of Pension Provision: Universality versus Insurance	p. 109
How Well Do Different Pension Systems Alleviate Old Age Poverty	p. 121
Intergenerational Transfers	p. 137
Average National Retirement Ages and Differing Life Expectancies-A Distributional Issue in National Pension Systems?	p. 166
A Closer Look at the Distributional Effects of Public Pensions	p. 174
State and Local Government Accounting and Retirement Finances	p. 185
Concluding Remarks	p. 195
References	p. 197
Data and Definitions	p. 205
	p. 212
The Employment Incentive Challenge for Aging Populations	p. 121
Economic Dependency Ratios Going Forward-Some Countries Will Have to Act	p. 122
A Closer Look at Employment Rates for Older Workers	p. 228
Most OECD Older Workers Will Be Better Educated in the Future	p. 246
Why Do People Withdraw Early from the Workforce?	p. 251
The Retirement Decision	p. 256
Phased Retirement Option	p. 268
Concluding Remarks	p. 269
Reference	p. 270
Exorcising the "Lump-of-Labor" Ghost One More (Last?) Time	p. 273
Individual Accounts	p. 277
The Context in Support of Individual Accounts	p. 278
Disadvantages of Individual Accounts	p. 279
Structures and Brief Histories of Selected Countries' Individual Accounts	p. 282
Participation/Contribution Density	p. 291
Administrative Costs and Fees	p. 298
Elderly Poverty and Replacement Rates	p. 301
Financing the Transition and Effects on National Saving	p. 309
Overall Conclusions	p. 313
Reference	p. 316
National or Nonfinancial Individual Accounts	p. 321
Notional Accounts in Sweden	p. 323
Notional Accounts in Other Countries	p. 334
US Proposals to Establish Private Accounts	p. 338
Conclusions	p. 344
Reference	p. 345
Challenges to Corporate Pension Provision	p. 347
"Good Old Days" Revisited-How Extensive Was the US Corporate Welfare State?	p. 348
Recent and Current Corporate Pension Provision	p. 363
Why the Switch from Defined Benefit Pension Plans?	p. 381
Choice of Corporate Defined Benefit or Defined Contribution/Hybrid Pension Provision in the OECD	p. 405
Recent Trends in Corporate Pension Provision in Other OECD Countries	p. 408
Summary of the Challenges	p. 431
Reference	p. 437
An Accounting Standards Arbitrage: How the French Government Took Over the Pension Liabilities of Electricité de France and Made Billions	p. 443
Conclusion	p. 449
Targeted Benefit Adjustments to Deal with the Fiscal Shortfall	p. 451
Adjusting the Retirement Age	p. 469
Increasing Revenues for the Social Security System	p. 471
Add-On Program of Individual Accounts	p. 471
Timing the Reform of Social Security and Automatic Balancing Mechanisms	p. 474
Reference	p. 481
Abbreviations	p. 483
Index	p. 487
Tables
Tax and Social Security treatment of benefits, 2003	p. 46
OECD typology of pension systems	p. 61
Synthesis of selected OECD countries' fiscal and demographic challenges	p. 86
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