This is the first-ever book to provide a comprehensive analysis of Chinese social security reforms with a variety of views. It addresses issues such as what kind of social security system China should establish, how this system should be managed and financed, and how the transition from the old system to the new system can best be accomplished. The authors of the papers in this book include internationally renowned Chinese and Western social security experts (such as Martin Feldstein and Henry Aaron), Chinese policy makers, and scholars who have worked on Chinese social security for years.

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The sooner our nation acts to address Social Security's long-term financial challenges, the easier it will be to successfully meet them. The choices are not difficult to understand, but they are difficult to make. They affect both how much Americans pay for Social Security & how much they receive from the program. They require changes that not only will affect us but have implications for future generations. This guide provides answers to questions about the most basic aspects of Social Security & reform issues in a concise & easy-to-understand format. It provides straightforward answers to how Social Security works, why it needs reform, what the basic options are, & how to assess their implications.

Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment analyzes the changing economic and demographic environment in which social insurance programs that benefit elderly households will operate. It also explores how these ongoing trends will affect future beneficiaries, under both the current social security program and potential reform options. In this volume, an esteemed group of economists probes the challenge posed to Social Security by an aging population. The researchers examine trends in private sector retirement saving and health care costs, as well as the uncertain nature of future demographic, economic, and social trends—including marriage and divorce rates and female participation in the labor force. Recognizing the ambiguity of the environment in which the Social Security system must operate and evolve, this landmark book explores factors that policymakers must consider in designing policies that are resilient enough to survive in an economically and demographically uncertain society.

Social security is the largest and perhaps the most popular program run by the federal government. Given the projected increase in both individual life expectancy and sheer number of retirees, however, the current system faces an eventual overload. Alternative proposals have emerged, ranging from reductions in future benefits to a rise in taxrevenue to various forms of investment-based personal retirement accounts. As this volume suggests, the distributional consequences of these proposals are substantially different and may disproportionately affect those groups who depend on social security to avoid poverty in old age. Together, these studies persuasively show that appropriately designed investment-based social security reforms can effectively reduce the long-term burden of an aging society on future taxpayers, increase the expected future income of retirees, and mitigate poverty rates among the elderly.