Spain’s government has introduced ambitious consolidation measures, which should yield a sizeable improvement in discretionary fiscal efforts. Should budgetary outcomes fall short of targets, the government should stand ready to introduce further measures, as announced. Such measures could...

This article provides the first empirical estimates of the effects of the Social Security Abstract benefit notch on lifetime benefits based on actual Social Security records, the 1988 Continuous Work History Sample. The authors'results show that the notch occurred in the context of a maturing...