Social Security

Social Security will soon start paying out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, forcing Congress to cut benefits, raise taxes, or both. Our research examines the likely impact of proposed reforms, Social Security’s role in retirement income security, and lessons that can be learned from abroad.

• How Could We Revitalize Social Security?
  
• Research Topics
  • Analyses of Proposed Reforms
  • Social Security and Income Distribution
  • International Comparisons
• Commentary and Testimony
• Events
• All Publications

Analyses of Proposed Reforms 

• A New Minimum Benefit for Low Lifetime Earners (2009)
• Are There Opportunities to Increase Social Security Progressivity despite Underfunding? (2008)
• Distributional Analysis of Pension and Social Security Reforms (2008)
• The Implications of Career Lengths for Social Security (2008)
• Can Faster Economic Growth Bail Out Our Retirement Programs? (2008)
• Minimum Benefits in Social Security (2007)
  full report | related brief | related brief
• Interactions Between Social Security Reform and the Supplemental Security Income Program for the Aged (2007)
• Would Raising the Social Security Retirement Age Harm Low-Income Groups?  (2007)
• Key Questions for Social Security Reform (2005)
• Reforming Social Security through Price and Progressive Price Indexing (2005)
• Distributional Effects of Reforming Social Security through Benefit Reductions (2005)
• Social Security COLA Reductions Would Weaken Financial Security for the Oldest and Poorest Retirees (2004)
• Social Security Reform and Benefit Adequacy (2004)
• Retooling Social Security for the 21st Century (1994)

Social Security and Income Distribution

• Rising Tides and Retirement: The Aggregate and Distributional Effects of Differential Wage Growth on Social Security (2009)
• A New Minimum Benefit for Low Lifetime Earners (2009)
• Are There Opportunities to Increase Social Security Progressivity despite Underfunding? (2008)
• Social Security and Adequacy:  Five Questions for Melissa Favreault (2007)
• The Changing Impact of Social Security on Retirement Income in the United States  (2005)
• Redistribution under OASDI (2004) full report | related brief | related brief
• The USA TODAY Lifetime Social Security and Medicare Benefits Calculator:  Assumptions and Methods (2004) full report | related brief | related spreadsheets
• Taxable Social Security Benefits (2004)
• The Effects of Disability Insurance on Redistribution Within Social Security By Gender, Education, Race and Income (2002)
• Lifetime Distributional Effects of Social Security Retirement Benefits (2001)

International Comparisons

• Overseas Pension Reforms Offer Lessons for the United States (2007)
• Social Security in Nine European Countries: A Portrait of Reform (2002)
• Older and Wiser:  The Economics of Public Pensions (1998)
• Administering Individual Accounts in Social Security:  The Role of Values and Objectives in Shaping Options (1999)

Commentary and Testimony

• Revitalizing Social Security: Effectively Targeting Benefit Enhancements for Low Lifetime Earners and the Oldest Old (2009)
• Securing Social Security: Lessons for the Next Debate (2009)
• Whichever Way We Go, Some Get Left Behind (2005)
• Social Security Dialogue Should Be Wide-Ranging (2005)
• Social Security––A Labor Force Issue: Statement before the Subcommittee on Social Security, Committee on Ways and Means, United States House of Representatives  (2005)
• Social Security Reform:  Statement  before the Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate  (2005)
• Alternatives to Strengthen Social Security: Testimony of C. Eugene Steuerle before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means (2005)
• Social Security Reform (2005)

 
Events

• Social Security Reform Abroad: What Lessons for the U.S.? (2007)
• Versus: Can Social Security Reform Wait? (2007)
• Social Security in an Age of Uncertainty (2000)

All Publications