The Medicare trust funds face huge prospective deficits by the end of this decade.This paper discusses trends in six areas that bear on the Medicare problem: the number of the elderly, their health status, use of medical care, labor force participation, income, and living arrangements. Among the...

Recent studies on human decision-making under uncertainty have revealed the following typical behavioral principles: (1) the importance of the status quo as a reference point ("target") for assessing outcomes, (2) the prevalence of risk-aversion for gains, i.e. above-target payoffs, but...

Numerous studies by economists during the past decade have revealed a large, statistically significant correlation between health and years of schooling after controlling for differences in income and other variables. Cigarette smoking is a likely intervening variable because of the strong...