In the past few years, the economic ramifications of aging have garnered
close attention from a group of NBER researchers led by David A. Wise.
In this volume, Wise and his collaborators continue to analyze a nexus
of age-related issues.
This volume begins by looking at the implications of private and public
personal retirement plans, focusing in particular on the impact of
401(k) programs on retirement strategies in light of potential social
security reform and factors such as annuitization and on asset
accumulation. Next, the often-observed relationship between health and
wealth is dissected from two different perspectives and correlated with
striking increases in health-care spending over the past two decades,
despite the improved health of older populations. The volume concludes
with an investigation of the retirement effects of various social
security provisions in both U.S. and German systems.
This carefully developed collection expands the current investigative
focus and broadens the dialogue on a rapidly growing area of social and
economic concern.