This study provides fresh evidence on the responsiveness of private consumption and, by implication, saving to government deficits. It focuses on consumption and saving from 1981 to 1989, a period during which the personal saving rate was characterized as surprisingly unresponsive to high...

"Previous research generally concludes that early participants in the Social Security system received a very good "deal"-better than later participants received, and much better than future participants are likely to get. However, researchers do not know the values of those deals and their...