This paper examines the degree of convergence in social protection registered in the European Union during the 1970-99 period. To that end, we use Eurostat data and study the long-run properties of the data set using time series analysis. Our results indicate that there is no evidence of...

In this paper we evaluate the quantitative impact that a number of alternative reform scenarios may have on the total expenditure for public pensions in Spain. Our quantitative findings can be summarized in two sentences. For all the reforms considered, the financial impact of the mechanical...

This paper quantifies the effects of social security on capital accumulation and wealth distribution in a life cycle framework with altruistic individuals. The main findings of this paper are that the current U.S. social security system has a significant impact on capital accumulation and wealth...

This paper studies the impact of an unfunded social security system on the distribution of bequests in a framework where savings are due both by life cycle and by random altruistic motivations. We show that the impact of social security on the distribution of bequests depends crucially on the...

There is a controversial debate about the effects of permanent disability benefits on labor market behavior. In this paper we estimate equations for deserving and receiving disability benefits to evaluate the award error as the difference in the probability of receiving and deserving using...

This paper provides a quantitative evaluation of the intra--cohort redistributive elements of the United States social security system in the context of a computable general equilibrium model. I determine how the well--being of individuals that differ across {\sl gender, race} and {\sl...