International Perspectives on Social Security Reform

The aging of America's population makes it imperative that we reform Social Security, but so far we have failed. To instruct this seemingly endless quest, International Perspectives on Social Security Reform looks at public pension revision in six countries that, like the United States, are members of the OECD and have a long tradition of social security threatened by population aging. Canada, Sweden, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy have much to teach the United States about what works well--and what works badly. A substantive analysis of each country's reforms is augmented in commentary by distinguished economists, who offer their own opinions. Ideas examined include private accounts, notional accounts, incentives to delay retirement, and automatic systems of pension adjustment.With contributions from Real Bouchard; Stuart Butler; James C. Capretta; Agneta Kruse and Edward Palmer; Estelle James; Lawrence H. Thompson; Tetsuo Kabe; Jagadeesh Gokhale; Richard Jackson; Michael Mersmann; Maya MacGuineas; Neil Howe; Alex Beer; John Turner; Stanford G. Ross; Alicia Puente Cackley, Tom Moscovitch, and Benjamin Pfeiffer; Paul N. Van de Water; and Dalmer D. Hoskins.