How Representative are Representative Workers? An Assessment of the Hypothetical Workers Commonly Used in Social Security Studies
An understanding of the financial and distributional consequences of Social Security reform requires knowledge about the actual life circumstances of participants, including the level and pattern of their lifetime earnings and when they retire. Some analyses of Social Security reform make simplifying assumptions about these characteristics by using “hypothetical workers” with set career paths. We seek to develop greater understanding about actual lifetime earnings patterns to compare with hypothetical workers and find discrepancies which lead typical hypothetical workers to produce a more favorable impression for defined-contribution pension reforms. We suggest modifications to make a more suitable hypothetical worker.
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| Length: | |
| Date of creation: | Jun 2009 |
| Date of revision: | |
| Publication status: | Published in Journal of Income Distribution 2.18(2009): pp. 92-117 |
| Handle: | RePEc:pra:mprapa:19036 |
| Contact details of provider: | Postal: Phone: +49-(0)89-2180-2219 Fax: +49-(0)89-2180-3900 Web page: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de More information through EDIRC
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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Steven Caldwell & Melissa Favreault & Alla Gantman & Jagadeesh Gokhale & Thomas Johnson, 1998.
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- Whitehouse, Edward, 2007.
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MPRA Paper
14797, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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- Julia Lynn Coronado & Don Fullerton & Thomas Glass, 1999.
"Distributional Impacts of Proposed Changes to the Social Security System,"
NBER Working Papers
6989, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Julia Lynn Coronado & Don Fullerton & Thomas Glass, 1999. "Distributional Impacts of Proposed Changes to the Social Security System," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 13, pages 149-186 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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