IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mrr/papers/wp008.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Chances are...Stochastic Forecasts of the Social Security Trust Fund and Attempts to Save It

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Anderson

    (Mountain View Research)

  • Shirpad Tuljapurkar

    (Stanford University)

  • Ronald D. Lee

    (University of California, Berkeley)

Abstract

We present forecasts of the Social Security trust fund, modeling key demographic and economic variables as time series. We evaluate plans for achieving long-term solvency by raising the normal retirement age (NRA), increasing taxes, or investing some portion of the fund in the stock market. Stochastic population trajectories by age and sex are generated using the Lee- Carter and Lee-Tuljapurkar mortality and fertility models. Economic variables are modeled as vector autoregressive processes. With taxes and benefits by age and sex, we obtain inflows to and outflows from the fund over time. Under current legislation, we estimate a 50% chance of insolvency by 2032. Investment in the market cannot keep the median fund solvent, even when the balance stays positive on average. The NRA must be raised to 71 by 2022 for a 66% chance of solvency beyond 2070. Solvency can also be achieved by raising the NRA to 68 by 2020, investing in the market, and increasing taxes one percent.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Anderson & Shirpad Tuljapurkar & Ronald D. Lee, 2001. "Chances are...Stochastic Forecasts of the Social Security Trust Fund and Attempts to Save It," Working Papers wp008, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://mrdrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/Papers/pdf/wp008.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Samwick, Andrew A., 1998. "New evidence on pensions, social security, and the timing of retirement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 207-236, November.
    2. Tuljapurkar, Shripad, 1992. "Stochastic population forecasts and their uses," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 385-391, November.
    3. Lee, Ronald & Tuljapurkar, Shripad, 1998. "Uncertain Demographic Futures and Social Security Finances," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 237-241, May.
    4. Ronald Lee & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 1997. "Death and Taxes: Longer life, consumption, and social security," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(1), pages 67-81, February.
    5. Regina Villela Malvar & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Willi Leibfritz, 1999. "Generational Accounting in Brazil," NBER Chapters, in: Generational Accounting around the World, pages 177-198, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Shripad Tuljapurkar & Carl Boe, "undated". "Mortality Change and Forecasting: How Much and How Little Do We Know?," Pension Research Council Working Papers 98-2, Wharton School Pension Research Council, University of Pennsylvania.
    7. David A. Wise, 1998. "Frontiers in the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise98-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kobsak Pootrakool & Anak Serichetpong, 2007. "Safeguarding out Nation's Nest Egg: Necessary Reforms to our Social Security System," Working Papers 2007-05, Monetary Policy Group, Bank of Thailand.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ronald D. Lee & Michael W. Anderson & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2003. "Stochastic Forecasts of the Social Security Trust Fund," Working Papers wp043, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    2. Jagadeesh Gokhale & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 2002. "Social Security's Treatment of Postwar Americans. How Bad Can It Get?," NBER Chapters, in: The Distributional Aspects of Social Security and Social Security Reform, pages 207-262, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Frank T. Denton & Byron G. Spencer, 1998. "Economic Costs of Population Aging," Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population Research Reports 339, McMaster University.
    4. Frank T. Denton & Byron G. Spencer, 1999. "Population Aging and Its Costs: A Survey of the Issues and Evidence," Department of Economics Working Papers 1999-03, McMaster University.
    5. Denton, Frank T. & Gafni, Amiram & Spencer, Byron G., 2002. "Exploring the effects of population change on the costs of physician services," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 781-803, September.
    6. Booth, Heather, 2006. "Demographic forecasting: 1980 to 2005 in review," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 547-581.
    7. Samir Soneji & Gary King, 2012. "Statistical Security for Social Security," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 1037-1060, August.
    8. Martin S. Feldstein & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2002. "The Distributional Effects of an Investment-Based Social Security System," NBER Chapters, in: The Distributional Aspects of Social Security and Social Security Reform, pages 263-326, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Marco Bassetto, 2009. "The Research Agenda: Marco Bassetto on the Quantitative Evaluation of Fiscal Policy Rules," EconomicDynamics Newsletter, Review of Economic Dynamics, vol. 10(2), April.
    10. Courtney Coile & Jonathan Gruber, 2007. "Fiscal Effects of Social Security Reform in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Fiscal Implications of Reform, pages 503-532, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Gao, Huan & Mamon, Rogemar & Liu, Xiaoming & Tenyakov, Anton, 2015. "Mortality modelling with regime-switching for the valuation of a guaranteed annuity option," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 108-120.
    12. Malmendier, Ulrike M. & Della Vigna, Stefano, 2002. "Overestimating Self-Control: Evidence from the Health Club Industry," Research Papers 1880, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    13. Fabio Pammolli & Pietro Rizza & Nicola Carmine Salerno, 2004. "Regole pensionistiche e incentivi al prolungamento della vita lavorativa: analisi del caso italiano," Working Papers CERM 06-2004, Competitività, Regole, Mercati (CERM).
    14. Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 2001. "Choice, Chance, and Wealth Dispersion at Retirement," NBER Chapters, in: Aging Issues in the United States and Japan, pages 25-64, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Dushi, Irena & Friedberg, Leora & Webb, Tony, 2010. "The impact of aggregate mortality risk on defined benefit pension plans," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 481-503, October.
    16. Prskawetz, A. & Kogel, T. & Sanderson, W.C. & Scherbov, S., 2007. "The effects of age structure on economic growth: An application of probabilistic forecasting to India," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 587-602.
    17. García-Pérez, J. Ignacio & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi & Sánchez-Martín, Alfonso R., 2013. "Retirement incentives, individual heterogeneity and labor transitions of employed and unemployed workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 106-120.
    18. Hiroaki Kaido & Kaspar Wüthrich, 2021. "Decentralization estimators for instrumental variable quantile regression models," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(2), pages 443-475, May.
    19. Keith Blackburn & Niloy Bose & M. Emranul Haque, 2011. "Public Expenditures, Bureaucratic Corruption And Economic Development," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(3), pages 405-428, June.
    20. Fanny Annemarie Kluge, 2013. "The Fiscal Impact of Population Aging in Germany," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(1), pages 37-63, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp008. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MRRC Administrator (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isumius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.