Frontiers in the Economics of Aging

by David A. Wise (Editor)

Overview

As America's population ages, economic research related to the elderly becomes increasingly important to public policy.

Frontiers in the Economics in Aging directs attention to four topics: the role of retirement accounts, such as IRAs and 401(k)s in personal saving; the economics of health care; new advances in research methodology; and aging in relation to inequality. Some of the issues analyzed within these topics are the implications of rising personal retirement saving in recent years, how health and health insurance affect labor supply, and the effects of pensions on the distribution of wealth.

David Wise's lucid introduction provides an overview of each paper. In addition to this book's appeal for specialists and microeconomists, it offers immediately practical ideas and methods for shaping public policy. In fact, one of the papers in this volume, "The Taxation of Pensions: A Shelter Can Become a Trap," helped to spur new legislation that reformed laws on pension distribution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226903231
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	12/01/2007
Series:	National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	508
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

David A. Wise is the John F. Stambaugh Professor of Political Economy emeritus at Harvard Kennedy School and a research associate of the NBER.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction by David A. Wise

I. Personal Retirement Plans

1. Personal Retirement Saving Programs and Asset Accumulation: Reconciling the Evidence

James M. Poterba, Steven F. Venti, and David A. Wise

Comment: David Laibson

2. Implications of Rising Personal Retirement Saving

James M. Poterba, Steven F. Venti, and David A. Wise

Comment: Sylvester J. Schieber

3. The Taxation of Pensions: A Shelter Can Become a Trap

John B. Shoven and David A. Wise

Comment: Alan J. Auerbach

II. Health: Spending Patterns and Implications and Effect on Work
4. The Medical Costs of the Young and Old: A Forty-Year Perspective

David M. Cutler and Ellen Meara

Comment: David Meltzer

5. Diagnosis and Medicare Expenditures at the End of Life

Alan M. Garber, Thomas MaCurdy, and Mark McClellan

Comment: David M. Cutler

6. The Impact of Intrafamily Correlations on the Viability of Catastrophic Insurance

Matthew J. Eichner

Comment: Thomas J. Kane

7. Health Events, Health Insurance, and Labor Supply: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Survey

Mark McClellan

Comment: Michael D. Hurd

III. Methodological Innovations
8. Consumption and Savings Balances of the Elderly: Experimental Evidence on Survey Response Bias

Michael D. Hurd, Daniel McFadden, Harish Chand, Li Gan, Angela Merrill, and Michael Roberts

Comment: James P. Smith

9. Stochastic Forecasts for Social Security

Ronald Lee and Shripad Tuljapurkar

Comment: Sylvester J. Schieber

IV. View of Inequality

10. Health, Income, and Inequality over the Life Cycle

Angus Deaton and Christina Paxson

Comment: David Meltzer

11. Pensions and the Distribution of Wealth

Kathleen McGarry and Andrew Davenport

Contributors

Author Index

Subject Index