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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Dean Baker; David Rosnick |
| Abstract: | There have been a number of proposals in policy circles that involve raising the Social Security retirement age. This is viewed as both a way to reduce or eliminate the projected shortfall in the program and also a response to projected increases in longevity. This paper examines the impact of an increase in the retirement age on various demographic groups. Treating future Social Security benefits as a form of wealth, it projects the impact of a gradual increase in the normal retirement age from 67 to 70 (2 months a year for 18 years) on each quintile of the wealth distribution using data from the Federal Reserve Board’s 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances. It constructs separate projections for homeowners and non-homeowners, single individuals and couples in the age cohorts 35-44, 45-54, and 55-64. The projections show that Social Security wealth is a far larger share of the wealth of the bottom four quintiles in each of these categories, therefore a reduction in Social Security benefits will have the effect of increasing inequality. |
| Keywords: | social security, retirement, inequality, retirement age |
| JEL: | H H5 H55 J J1 J14 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2012-12&r=pke |
| By: | Edward N. Wolff; Ajit Zacharias; Thomas Masterson; Selçuk Eren; Andrew Sharpe; Elspeth Hazell |
| Abstract: | We use the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-being (LIMEW), the most comprehensive income measure available to date, to compare economic well-being in Canada and the United States in the first decade of the 21st century. This study represents the first international comparison based on LIMEW, which differs from the standard measure of gross money income (MI) in that it includes noncash government transfers, public consumption, income from wealth, and household production, and nets out all personal taxes. We find that, relative to the United States, median equivalent LIMEW was 11 percent lower in Canada in 2000. By 2005, this gap had narrowed to 7 percent, while the difference in median equivalent MI was only 3 percent. Inequality was notably lower in Canada, with a Gini coefficient of 0.285 for equivalent LIMEW in 2005, compared to a US coefficient of 0.376—a gap that primarily reflects the greater importance of income from wealth in the States. However, the difference in Gini coefficients declined between 2000 and 2005. We also find that the elderly were better off relative to the nonelderly in the United States, but that high school graduates did better relative to college graduates in Canada. |
| Keywords: | Well-Being; Living Standards; Inequality; Income; International Comparisons |
| JEL: | D31 D63 P17 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:1201&r=pke |
| By: | Juan Montecino; Jake Johnson |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at Jamaica’s stalled agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), its economic performance over the past year and examines its persistently high debt burden. It finds that an unsustainable debt burden continues to displace needed investments, preventing long-term growth. The stalling of the IMF agreement has prevented disbursements of necessary multilateral financing, slowing the economy’s recovery. Together with pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies supported by the IMF, the recovery of the Jamaican economy remains muted. |
| Keywords: | jamaica, imf, debt, JDX, |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2012-15&r=pke |
| By: | Erik S. Reinert |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies four different periods (1848, 1890s - partly also 1930s - and neoliberalism today) where the same tendencies recur: a Rise of Academic Monoculture (of esoteric knowledge), Refeudalization (tendencies towards a plutocracy), Crisis and Renewal. These sequences and their recurrence define the changing relationship between economics and the public sphere, and it is only through activities in the public sphere that any renewal will take place. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tth:wpaper:40&r=pke |
| By: | Marc Fleurbaey (Economic Theory Center - Princeton University, Le Collège d'études mondiales/FMSH - Fondation Maison des sciences de l?homme) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes four concepts of exploitation that encapsulate common uses of the word in social interactions: unfair advantage, unequal exchange, using persons as means, free-riding. It briefly discusses how these concepts appear in the literature (the first two are prominent in Roemer's classical work), and then examines how these forms of exploitation are related and how they can occur. |
| Keywords: | exploitation; unequal exchange; Roemer |
| Date: | 2012–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00702100&r=pke |
| By: | AfDB |
| Date: | 2012–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adb:adbwps:391&r=pke |
| By: | Aldy, Joseph E. (Harvard University and Resources for the Future, Washington, DC) |
| Abstract: | The information structure of the climate change policy collaboration problem necessitates the design of institutions to enhance public knowledge about nations' commitments, policies, and outcomes. The international community has addressed this kind of problem in a wide array of other contexts from which lessons can be drawn and applied to international climate policy. Based on these experiences and the characteristics of a successful international climate policy architecture, this paper proposes the design of a "Bretton Woods Climate Institution" (BWCI). This BWCI should implement a serious system of national and global policy surveillance. This surveillance would include an evaluation by independent experts of the various policy commitments nations make in international negotiations to assess whether nations delivered on their commitments and to examine the impacts of these actions on various climate change risk reduction margins, such as emission abatement and adaptation. Such a surveillance scheme should be consultative in nature, to allow give and take among experts and among nations engaged in the international climate policy effort. Based on this surveillance, the institution should promote best policy practices. In addition, the BWCI should provide a means to channel some financing for investments in climate change risk mitigation activities in developing countries. By making funds conditional on agreeing to policy surveillance, such an approach would create an incentive for transparent evaluations of policies and actions. Moreover, access to market-based climate policy schemes, such as the Clean Development Mechanism and emission trading, could be predicated on countries agreeing to participate in policy surveillance. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-017&r=pke |
| By: | Alexandru Minea (CERDI (University of Auvergne), 65 Boulevard François Mitterrand, BP 320, 63009 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex 1, France.); Antoine Parent (BETA-REGLES (University of Nancy 2), 13 Place Carnot, CO 26, 54035 Nancy Cedex.) |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afc:wpaper:12-08&r=pke |