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Working Paper
What does the capital income tax distort?
In addition to taxing future consumption (including leisure), capital income taxation subsidizes the consumption of durables. the taxation of future consumption may be characterized as an intertemporal distortion, while the subsidy to durables may be characterized as a static distortion. the magnitude of this intertemporal distortion has received considerable attention, but few analyses have dealt with the static distortion. ; This paper decomposes the excess burden arising from capital income taxation into its static and intertemporal components. the analysis is based on a life-cycle model ...
Journal Article
Should social security be privatized?
An examination of the rationale for public pension programs, a look at how the current U.S. Social Security system evolved, and an analysis of the issues surrounding privatization.
Journal Article
Structural reform of the Social Security system: the time has come
An argument that any successful reform of the Social Security system must 1) result in more real investment, 2) restore individuals' incentives to work, and 3) reduce or eliminate the intergenerational redistribution that leads to low national saving.
Journal Article
Social Security: are we getting our money's worth?
An examination of Social Security from an individual investment perspective, showing that continued delays in addressing the program's shortcomings will only increase the intergenerational inequities that now exist.
Journal Article
The effect of war expenditures on U.S. output
A study of how war-related temporary increases in government expenditures affect real interest rates and output, with particular emphasis on the probable fiscal effects of the Persian Gulf War.
Working Paper
The burden of German unification: a generational accounting approach
An assessment of the generational stance of postunification German fiscal policy and an estimate of the burden of unification-related fiscal measures on West German generations, finding that future generations will bear much larger lifetime net tax burdens than current newborns.
Working Paper
Understanding the postwar decline in United States saving: a cohort analysis
An analysis of the postwar decline in U.S. national saving that decomposes changes in the net national saving rate into those due to changes in cohort-specific consumption propensities, the intergenerational distribution of resources, the rate of government spending, and demographics. ; A review and expansion of Calomiris, Kahn, and Longhofer's (1994) cultural affinity theory of discrimination in the residential mortgage market, which is based on the idea that lenders find it easier or less costly to evaluate the creditworthiness of applicants with whom they have a common experiential ...
Journal Article
Generational accounts for the United States: an update
An examination of the continuing generational imbalance in U.S. fiscal policy, showing that under current policy, future generations will have to pay almost half of their lifetime labor incomes in net taxes to balance the government's book--more than 70% greater than the 28.6% today's newborns are slated to give up.
Working Paper
The adequacy of life insurance: evidence from the health and retirement survey
This study examines life insurance adequacy among married American couples approaching retirement based on the 1992 Health and Retirement Survey with matched Social Security earnings histories. It evaluates each household's life insurance needs based on new financial planning software that embodies a life-cycle-planning model and covers a broad array of demographic, economic, and financial characteristics. A sizable minority of households are significantly underinsured. Almost one third of wives and over 10 percent of husbands would have suffered living-standard reductions greater than 20 ...
Working Paper
Does it pay to work?
Does it pay to work? This is a tough question because of the complexity of the tax code and the plethora of dynamic linkages involved: 1) Earning more today typically alters current saving and, therefore, future capital income taxes. 2) Earning more today generally alters future consumption and, therefore, future consumption taxes. 3) Changing future levels of income and assets changes the eligibility for and levels received of income- and asset-tested transfer benefits. 4) The most important transfer program, Social Security, explicitly links future transfer payments to current earnings. 5) ...