Social Security

Social Security will soon start paying out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes for the foreseeable future, forcing Congress to cut benefits, raise taxes, or both. Our research examines Social Security’s role in retirement income security, its impact on the federal budget, and the likely effect of proposed reforms.

• How Could We Reform Social Security?
  
• Data at a Glance
  
• Overview of Issues
• Research Topics
  • Analyses of Proposed Reforms
  • Social Security and the Budget
  • Social Security and Income Distribution
  • International Comparisons
• Commentary and Testimony
• Events
• All Publications

Data at a Glance

• Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Benefits Over a Lifetime (2011)

• Distributional Effects of Alternative Social Security Reforms: Details Matter (2010)

• Raising Social Security's Retirement Age (2010)

• Social Security Retirement Awards Hit All-Time High in 2009 (2010)

Overview of Issues

• The Future of Social Security: Solvency, Work, Adequacy, and Equity (2011)

• Ponzi Schemes and Social Security (2011)

• The Social Security Trust Fund (2011)

• Does Social Security Need to Be Fixed Now? (2010)

Analyses of Proposed Reforms 

• How Would the President's Fiscal Commission's Social Security Proposals Affect Future Beneficiaries? (2011)

• Distributional Effects of Alternative Social Security Reforms: Details Matter (2010)

• Raising Social Security's Retirement Age (2010)

• The Future of Social Security: Solvency, Work, Adequacy, and Equity (2010)
• Revitalizing Social Security: Effectively Targeting Benefit Enhancements for Low Lifetime Earners and the Oldest Old (2009)
• Securing Social Security: Lessons for the Next Debate (2009)
• A New Minimum Benefit for Low Lifetime Earners (2009)
• Are There Opportunities to Increase Social Security Progressivity despite Underfunding? (2008)
• Distributional Analysis of Pension and Social Security Reforms (2008)
• The Implications of Career Lengths for Social Security (2008)
• Can Faster Economic Growth Bail Out Our Retirement Programs? (2008)
• Minimum Benefits in Social Security (2007)
  full report | related brief | related brief
• Interactions Between Social Security Reform and the Supplemental Security Income Program for the Aged (2007)
• Would Raising the Social Security Retirement Age Harm Low-Income Groups?  (2007)
• Key Questions for Social Security Reform (2005)
• Reforming Social Security through Price and Progressive Price Indexing (2005)
• Distributional Effects of Reforming Social Security through Benefit Reductions (2005)
• Social Security COLA Reductions Would Weaken Financial Security for the Oldest and Poorest Retirees (2004)
• Social Security Reform and Benefit Adequacy (2004)
• Retooling Social Security for the 21st Century (1994)

Social Security and the Budget

• The Debt Ceiling Deal, the "Super Committee," and Retirement Programs (2011)
• The Social Security Trust Fund (2011)

• Committees Tackle the Deficit (2011)

• The Debt Ceiling Deal, the "Super Committee," and Retirement Programs (2011)

• Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Benefits Over a Lifetime (2010)

• Social Security and the Budget (2010)

• Budgeting in the Ideal and in the United States (2010)
• Fiscal Days of Reckoning (2009)
• Addressing Short- and Long-Term Fiscal Challenges Testimony before the Senate Budget Committee (2009)

Social Security and Income Distribution

• The Potential Impact of the Great Recession on Future Retirement Incomes (2011)
  full report | related brief | video commentary
• Medicare Premiums and Social Security's Cost-of-Living Adjustments (2011)
• Immigrant Diversity and Social Security: Recent Patterns and Future Prospects (2011)
• The Social Security Early Retirement Benefit as a Safety Net (2011)
• Adjusting Social Security Benefits for Changes in the Cost of Living (2010) policy brief | video commentary
• Why Do Some Workers Have Low Social Security Benefits? (2010) full report | related brief
• Rising Tides and Retirement: The Aggregate and Distributional Effects of Differential Wage Growth on Social Security (2009)
• Financial Hardship before and after Social Security's Eligibility Age (2009)
• How the Income Tax Treatment of Saving and Social Security Benefits May Affect Boomers' Retirement Incomes (2008)
• Social Security and Adequacy:  Five Questions for Melissa Favreault (2007)
• The Impact of Late-Career Health and Employment Shocks on Social Security and Other Wealth (2007)
• The Changing Impact of Social Security on Retirement Income in the United States  (2005)
• Redistribution under OASDI (2004) full report | related brief | related brief
• The USA TODAY Lifetime Social Security and Medicare Benefits Calculator:  Assumptions and Methods (2004) full report | related brief | related spreadsheets
• Taxable Social Security Benefits (2004)
• The Effects of Disability Insurance on Redistribution Within Social Security By Gender, Education, Race and Income (2002)
• Lifetime Distributional Effects of Social Security Retirement Benefits (2001)
• Lifetime Earnings Patterns, the Distribution of Future Social Security Benefits, and the Impact of Pension Reform (1999)

International Comparisons

• Overseas Pension Reforms Offer Lessons for the United States (2007)
• Social Security in Nine European Countries: A Portrait of Reform (2002)
• Older and Wiser:  The Economics of Public Pensions (1998)
• Administering Individual Accounts in Social Security:  The Role of Values and Objectives in Shaping Options (1999)

Commentary and Testimony

• The Debt Ceiling Deal, the "Super Committee," and Retirement Programs (2011)
• Restoring Solvency and Improving Equity in Social Security Benefit Options Statement Before the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security (2011)
• Ponzi Schemes and Social Security (2011)
• The Pointless Debate Over the Social Security Trust Fund (2011)
• The Progressive Case Against Subsidizing Middle-Age Retirement (2011)
• Raise the Retirement Age, but Protect Those Who Can't Work (2011)
• Lowering the Heat Around Raising Retirement Age (2010)
• How Middle-Age Retirement Adds to Recession Woes (2010)
• How Social Security Can Costlessly Offset Declines in Private Pension Protection (2010)
• Revitalizing Social Security: Effectively Targeting Benefit Enhancements for Low Lifetime Earners and the Oldest Old (2009)
• Securing Social Security: Lessons for the Next Debate (2009)
• Addressing Short- and Long-Term Fiscal Challenges: Testimony before the Senate Budget Committee (2009)
• Whichever Way We Go, Some Get Left Behind (2005)
• Social Security Dialogue Should Be Wide-Ranging (2005)
• Social Security––A Labor Force Issue: Statement before the Subcommittee on Social Security, Committee on Ways and Means, United States House of Representatives  (2005)
• Social Security Reform:  Statement  before the Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate  (2005)
• Alternatives to Strengthen Social Security: Testimony of C. Eugene Steuerle before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means (2005)
• Social Security Reform (2005)

 
Events

• The $5 Trillion Question: What Do the Budget Commissions' Social Security Proposals Mean for Retirees and Taxpayers? (January 21, 2011)
• The Big Balance: Raising the Retirement Age while Protecting Those Who Cannot Work (July 14, 2010)
• The Social Side of Social Security: Can Benefit Adequacy and Equity Be Improved? (June 16, 2010)
• Securing Social Security: Does It Need to Be Fixed Now? (May 19, 2010)
• Trillions of Reasons to Get Serious about Our Fiscal Future (February 25, 2010)
• Social Security Reform Abroad: What Lessons for the U.S.? (2007)
• Versus: Can Social Security Reform Wait? (2007)
• Social Security in an Age of Uncertainty (2000)

All Publications