Much of the existing literature on social security has taken the extreme assumption that individuals have little or no altruism; this paper takes an opposite assumption that there is full two-sided altruism. When households insure members that belong to the same family line, privatizing social...

We calibrate the model to the U.S. data and numerically characterize transition paths from the current tax system to a reformed system. All our experiments are revenue-neutral. Starting from the current tax code, we allow for transitions to reformed steady-states in which the capital income...

We build a general equilibrium model with endogenous saving, labor force participation, work hours and social security benefit claiming, in which overlapping generations of individuals face income, survival and health expenditure risks in incomplete markets. We use the model to study the impact...

Japanese and U.S. saving rates have been significantly different over the last forty years. Can a standard growth model explain this difference? The answer is yes. Our results indicate that both an infinite horizon, complete markets setup and an overlapping generations model with incomplete...

We study the effects of on-the-job skill accumulation on average hours worked by age and the volatility of hours over the life cycle in a calibrated general equilibrium model. Two forms of skill accumulation are considered: learning by doing and on-the-job training. In our economy with learning...

Past government spending in Japan is currently imposing a significant fiscal burden that is reflected in a net debt to output ratio near 150 percent. In addition, the aging of Japanese society implies that public expenditures and transfers payments relative to output are projected to continue to...