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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Irrelevance Of The Double Dividend, Don Fullerton, Jane Gravelle Dec 1998

The Irrelevance Of The Double Dividend, Don Fullerton, Jane Gravelle

Don Fullerton

This paper reviews five or more problems with the whole concept of the "Double Dividend Hypothesis." First, it is not well defined. Second, the usual theoretical models cannot answer this empirical question. Third, they also cannot say whether a double dividend is likely or unlikely. Fourth, the number of dividends does not matter (four dividends may add up to less welfare than one big dividend). Fifth, the simple analytical models cannot address the complexity of the issue.


Distributional Impacts Of Proposed Changes To The Social Security System, Julia Coronado, Don Fullerton, Thomas Glass Dec 1998

Distributional Impacts Of Proposed Changes To The Social Security System, Julia Coronado, Don Fullerton, Thomas Glass

Don Fullerton

In this paper we assess the degree to which the current social security system redistributes income from rich to poor. We then estimate the impact of various proposed changes to social security on the overall redistributive effect of the system. Our analysis takes a steady-state approach in which we assume participants work their entire lives and retire under a given system. Redistribution is measured on a lifetime basis using estimated earnings profiles for a sample of people taken from the PSID. We allow for differential mortality, not only by gender and race, but also by lifetime income. Our results indicate …