Social Security money's worth measures in a life -cycle context

Among the issues raised in the analysis of social security is whether participants receive their money's worth from the system. Money's worth measures are used to compare how different groups of social security participants fare relative to each other, as well as to compare how participants would fare if social security were altered in some way.;If social security has an effect on labor supply or on private saving, traditional social security money's worth measures may not fully capture the economic effects of social security on the lifetime incomes of participants. By ignoring these effects, traditional social security money's worth measures may lead to distorted conclusions as to the money's worth and redistribution issues associated with social security.;The focus of this dissertation is social security's impact on saving. If social security reduces private saving, the aggregate capital stock will be reduced. This in turn will have an impact on wages and interest rates. These changes in factor prices have implications for lifetime income. Acknowledging the economic effects of social security on lifetime income, and incorporating them with social security contribution and benefit streams will yield more complete social security money's worth measures, and as a result a more comprehensive understanding of the money's worth and redistributive aspects of social security.;Using a simple life-cycle model, this dissertation develops social security money's worth measures that incorporate the economic impact of social security on saving. These returns are simulated over time for individuals in different income classes. By comparing the more complete returns with traditional rates of return generated by the same model, the appropriateness of the traditional return for assessing the money's worth and redistributive aspects of social security can be examined.