Some Social Security reforms would provide guarantees that individuals would not receive less under a reformed system than would be provided by current law. However, the "current law" benefit formula increases benefits when wages rise. Any reform successfully adding to economic growth,...

This article assesses the prospects for retirement security among Social Security beneficiaries in 2022 and 2062. In absolute terms, beneficiaries in 2062 will be better off than those in 2022, at least assuming Social Security benefits scheduled under current law. Those beneficiaries will have...

Our project uses DYNASIM3, the Urban Institute’s dynamic microsimulation model of the U.S. population, to simulate several alternative systems of Social Security auxiliary benefits. We specifically consider earnings sharing, a system in which a husband’s and a wife’s earnings records are...

While growing fiscal pressures and increasing life expectancy have prompted calls to raise retirement ages so that lifetime benefits would be concentrated in older ages, some fear that this change - without other adjustments - might harm long-career, lower-wage workers. Tying retirement benefit...

As interest in proposals to restore Social Security solvency rises, it's timely to examine whether current policy analyses provide adequate information on important distributional questions. This project explores measures of changes in Social Security benefits' adequacy, horizontal equity, and...