全球智库信息集成服务系统(G2TT): Distributional Effects of Means Testing Social Security: An Exploratory Analysis

G2TT

来源类型	Working Paper
规范类型	报告
DOI	10.3386/w20546
来源ID	Working Paper 20546
	Distributional Effects of Means Testing Social Security: An Exploratory Analysis
	Alan Gustman; Thomas Steinmeier; Nahid Tabatabai
发表日期	2014-10-06
出版年	2014
语种	英语
摘要	This paper examines the distributional implications of introducing additional means testing of Social Security benefits where proceeds are used to help balance Social Security's finances. Benefits of the top quarter of households ranked according to the relevant measure of means are reduced using a modified version of the Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). The replacement rate in the first bracket of the benefit formula, determining the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), would be reduced from 90 percent to 40 percent of Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME). Four measures of means are considered: total wealth; an annualized measure of AIME; the wealth value of pensions; and a measure of average indexed lifetime W2 earnings. The empirical analysis is based on data from the Health and Retirement Study. These means tests would reduce total lifetime household benefits by 7 to 9 percentage points. We find that the basis for means testing Social Security makes a substantial difference as to which households have their benefits reduced, and that different means tests may have different effects on the benefits of families in similar circumstance. We also find that the measure of means used to evaluate the effects of a means test makes a considerable difference as to how one would view the effects of the means test on the distribution of benefits.
主题	Microeconomics ; Market Structure and Distribution ; Welfare and Collective Choice ; Macroeconomics ; Consumption and Investment ; Public Economics ; National Fiscal Issues ; Health, Education, and Welfare ; Poverty and Wellbeing ; Labor Economics ; Demography and Aging ; Labor Compensation
URL	https://www.nber.org/papers/w20546
来源智库	National Bureau of Economic Research (United States)
引用统计
资源类型	智库出版物
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/578220
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Alan Gustman,Thomas Steinmeier,Nahid Tabatabai. Distributional Effects of Means Testing Social Security: An Exploratory Analysis. 2014.