Research & Analysis by Peter M. Wheeler
The U.S. Study of Work Incapacity and Reintegration
The International Social Security Association recently completed a six-nation comparative study of work incapacity and reintegration that focused on workers with back disorders. This article discusses the findings of the U.S. national study and discusses their policy implications.
Income Protection for the Aged in the 21st Century: A Framework to Help Inform the Debate
It is becoming increasing difficult worldwide for the aged to sustain a minimum level of income protection into retirement. Rapidly aging populations and lower fertility rates are creating serious fiscal strains on current social insurance systems. A report issued by the World Bank maintains that countries whose primary mechanism for providing old-age income protection is a publicly managed social insurance system will experience significant difficulties unless they make structural changes in their programs. Actuarial estimates indicate that benefit payments in the United States could in fact exceed income to the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund by 2029 and a variety of proposals to address this problem are being advanced. We suggest a framework to evaluate such proposals based on a set of core values (fairness, adequacy, and efficiency) and analyze some of the proposed changes both in relation to how they have been employed in other countries and within the context of the framework. The purpose of this article is to inform and help structure a most important debate.