The essays in this volume discuss such timely topics as demographic change and the outlook for Social Security and Medicare in the United States; long term decision making under uncertainty; the effect of changing family structure on government spending; how the structure of public retirement policies has encouraged early retirement in some countries and not others; the response of local community spending to demographic change; and related topics. Contributors include many of the world's leading public finance economists and economic demographers.
Contents
1. Introduction; 2. Population forecasting for fiscal planning: issues and innovations Ronald Lee and Shripad Tuljapurkar; Comment Daniel McFadden; Comment James Smith; 3. Uncertainty and the design of long-run fiscal policy Alan J. Auerbach and Kevin Hassett; Comment Peter Diamond; Comment Shripad Tuljapurkar; 4. How does a community's demographic composition alter its fiscal burdens? Thomas MaCurdy and Thomas Nechyba; Comment Hilary Hoynes; Comment Robert Willis; 5. Social security, retirement incentives, and retirement behavior: an international perspective Jonathan Gruber and David Wise; Comment Axel Borsh-Supan; Comment Massimo Livi Bacci; 6. Aging, fiscal policy and social insurances: a European perspective Bernd Raffelhüschen; Comment David Weil; Comment David Weir; 7. Demographics and medical care spending: standard and non-standard effects David M. Cutler and Louise Sheiner; Comment Victor Fuchs; 8. Projecting Social Security's finances and its treatment of postwar Americans Steven Caldwell, Alla Gantman, Jagadeesh Gokhale, Thomas Johnson and Laurence J. Kotlikoff; Comment Nada Eissa; 9. Demographic change and public assistance expenditures Robert A. Moffitt; Comment David Card; Comment S. Philip Morgan.
Review
"I recommend this book to anyone interested in social insurance programs or fiscal policy. The papers cover a wide spectrum and address important contemporary issues." Eastern Economic Journal
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