A comprehensive plan from two leading experts on how to fix America's outdated retirement systemAmerica's retirement system has serious problems. While it works well for some retirees, millions of others don't have the sound retirement they have worked decades to secure. Roughly 40 percent of today's $4 trillion federal budget is devoted to supporting retirees, which will grow to roughly halfover the next decade--imperiling the sustainability of the whole system.The system is out of date. It reflects the America of a bygone age--an era in which company or union pensions provided middle-class families a decent standard of living in retirement. In America today, however, private pensions have mostly disappeared, Social Security is threatened to go insolvent,people are living longer, and health care costs continue to rise. Poorer retirees now must choose between buying enough to eat and their prescription drugs.In The Retirement Challenge, influential former White House economists Martin Neil Baily and Benjamin H. Harris explore America's outdated retirement system and explain how improving retirement requires changes by families, employers, and policymakers alike. Households need to save more, get smarterabout their finances, and trade part of their 401(k) balances for insurance products. Companies need to take a more active role in their workers' retirements. And lawmakers need to amend the tax code, Social Security, and a host of other programs.Despite today's wide political divide, policymakers from both parties can come together around changes that will promote a stable retirement. This book shows that these changes do not represent a radical overhaul. If families, businesses, and policymakers do their part, everyone--current retireesand future generations--can enjoy a much more secure and prosperous retirement.

The Retirement Challenge: What's Wrong with America's System and A Sensible Way to Fix It

Business & Money

Baily, Martin Neil

Harris, Benjamin H.

Economics

Oxford University Press

This highly readable, intermediate macroeconomics text presents a contemporary mainstream view of macroeconomics on combining insights from the monetarism, rational expectations, and Neo-Keynesian models.

Macroeconomics, Financial Markets, and the International Sector (Irwin Series in Economics)

Friedman, Philip

Richard D.Irwin

The collapse of U.S. productivity growth since the late 1960s has been the most severe and persistent of recent economic problems. This volume reviews the extent of the growth slowdown, evaluates several contributing factors, and suggests strategies for improvement. The authors find that inflation, recessions, oil price fluctuations, and other economic disruptions in the 1970s had an averse effect on economic performance, but, they suggest, a slowing in the pace of innovation and a failure to exploit the benefits of innovation also contributed to the weakness in productivity.
 Baily and Chakrabarti provide a comprehensive assessment of U.S. technology policy and its importance to growth. They argue for continued support of basic science, even though strength in this area does not give the U.S. economy an immediate competitive advantage, and advocate increased support for "middle ground" and commercial research. They conclude that this support must be structured to preserve the advantages of the market.

Innovation and the Productivity Crisis

Alok K. Chakrabarti

Brookings Institution Press

The collapse of U.S. productivity growth since the late 1960s has been the most severe and persistent of recent economic problems. This volume reviews the extent of the growth slowdown, evaluates several contributing factors, and suggests strategies for improvement. The authors find that inflation, recessions, oil price fluctuations, and other economic disruptions in the 1970s had an averse effect on economic performance, but, they suggest, a slowing in the pace of innovation and a failure to exploit the benefits of innovation also contributed to the weakness in productivity.  Baily and Chakrabarti provide a comprehensive assessment of U.S. technology policy and its importance to growth. They argue for continued support of basic science, even though strength in this area does not give the U.S. economy an immediate competitive advantage, and advocate increased support for "middle ground" and commercial research. They conclude that this support must be structured to preserve the advantages of the market.

For nearly two decades the U.S. economy has been plagued by two disturbing economic trends: the slowdown in the growth rates of productivity and average real wages and the increase in wage and income inequality. The federal budget is in chronic deficit. Imports have far exceeded exports for more than a decade. American competitiveness has been a source of concern for even longer. Many Americans worry that foreigners are buying up U.S. companies, that the economy is losing its manufacturing base, and that the gap between rich and poor is widening. In this book three of the nation's most noted economists look at the primary reasons for these trends and assess which of the many suggestions for change in policy—whether for increased tax incentives for investment, education reform, or accelerated research and development—are likely to work and which may not work and could even hinder economic development. The author's discuss a variety of issues connected with deindustrialization and diminished competitiveness, distinguishing between problems that would be of real concern and those that should not. They evaluate explanations for slow growth in aggregate productivity in the United States and its relation to slower growth in other industrialized countries. They discuss the performance of the various sectors of the U.S. economy and systematically examine the evidence for and against the major proposals for correcting the adverse trends in productivity and inequity. Growth With Equity clearly explains how the country can accomplish the challenge of accelerating growth and narrowing the gap that separates the rich from the poor. While recognizing that some of their recommendations may be politically painful, the authors stress the importance of adopting a purposeful, long-range policy to encourage growth, ensure equity, and reduce the government's equity.

Growth with Equity: Economic Policymaking for the Next Century

Litan, Robert E.

Burtless, Gary

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) provides academic and business economists, government officials, and members of the financial and business communities with timely research of current economic issues.  Contents include:  Standard Setting in High-Definition Television, Joseph Farell and Carl Shapiro  Governance Structure, Managerial Characteristics, and Firm Performance in the Deregulated Rail Industry, Ann F. Friedlaender, Ernst R. Berndt, and Gerard McCullough  Productivity Dynamics in Manufacturing Plants, Martin Neil Baily, Charles Hulten and David Campbell  Race and School Quality Since Brown v. Board of Education, Michael A. Boozer, Alan B. Krueger, and Shari Wolkon  The Structure and Performance of the Money Management Industry, Josef Lakonishok, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert W. Vishny  Carbon Taxes and Economic Welfare, Dale W. Jorgenson, Daniel T. Slesnick, and Peter J. Wilcoxen

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity Microeconomics, 1992

Winston, Clifford

Europe grew rapidly for many years, but now, faced with greater challenges, several of the large economies in Europe have either failed to generate enough jobs or have failed to achieve the highest levels of productivity or both. This study explores why Europe's growth slowed, what contribution information technology makes to growth, and what policies could facilitate economic transformation. It emphasizes a system with strong work incentives and a high level of competitive intensity. Europe doesn't need to eliminate its protections for individuals, the authors conclude, but both social programs and policies toward business must be reoriented so that they encourage economic change.

Transforming the European Economy

Kirkegaard, Jacob Funk

Peterson Institute for International Economics

It is generally accepted that Social Security must be reformed, but there is little agreement on what should be done to reform the program. US Pension Reform: Lessons from Other Countries looks at the social pension reforms of twelve other countries, assesses the current US Social Security program, and evaluates how these twelve models inform opportunities for adaptation of the current system. The authors consider governments' current fiscal balances in order to contextualize countries' initial financial liabilities and pension program infrastructure. The book concludes with an integrated reform proposal for Social Security. These prescriptions suggest concrete plans to address issues such as underfunding, benefits for high-income participants and the elderly demographic segment, as well as the creation of an individual account program. This volume forges significant advances and boldly confronts the challenge of reconstructing the US Social Security program.

US Pension Reform: Lessons from Other Countries

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baily, Martin Neil. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Baily, Martin Neil

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baily, Martin Neil. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Retirement Challenge: What's Wrong with America's System and A Sensible Way to Fix It

Macroeconomics, Financial Markets, and the International Sector (Irwin Series in Economics)

Innovation and the Productivity Crisis

Innovation and the Productivity Crisis

Growth with Equity: Economic Policymaking for the Next Century

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity Microeconomics, 1992

Transforming the European Economy

US Pension Reform: Lessons from Other Countries