Do Democracies Bankrupt Social Security Programs?

Friday, April 26, 2002 | 10:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

About This Event

Is there an empirical relationship between Social Security and democracy? Social Security systems around the world are in financial trouble. One explanation for this phenomenon is that politically active elderly voters are more likely to support candidates who favor generous retirement benefits. These benefits are costly. Drawing on data from many countries, Casey Mulligan, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, will discuss the effect of democracy on the size and design of Social Security programs. Nicholas Eberstadt, the Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy at AEI, and Eric M. Engen, a resident scholar at AEI, will respond.

Agenda

9:00 a.m.	Registration
9:15	Speaker	Casey Mulligan, University of Chicago

	Panelists	Nicholas Eberstadt, AEI
		Eric M. Engen, AEI
	Moderator	Kevin A. Hassett, AEI
11:00	Adjournment

Speaker Biographies

Also Visit

What's new on AEI

	The Pentagon’s illusion of choice: Hagel’s 2 options are really 1
	Wild about Larry
	Primary care as affordable luxury
	Solving the chicken-or-egg job problem

AEI Participants

Nicholas
Eberstadt

Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist and a demographer by training, is also a senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research, a member of the visiting committee at the Harvard School of Public Health, and a member of the Global Leadership Council at the World Economic Forum. He researches and writes extensively on economic development, foreign aid, global health, demographics, and poverty. He is the author of numerous monographs and articles on North and South Korea, East Asia, and countries of the former Soviet Union. His books range from The End of North Korea (AEI Press, 1999) to The Poverty of the Poverty Rate (AEI Press, 2008).
Phone: 202-862-5825
Email: eberstadt@aei.org
Assistant Info
Name: Katherine Earle
Phone: (202) 862-5872
Email: katherine.earle@aei.org

Show More | See Full Profile

Kevin A.
Hassett

Kevin A. Hassett is the John G. Searle Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He is also a resident scholar and AEI's director of economic policy studies.

Before joining AEI, Hassett was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at Columbia (University) Business School. He served as a policy consultant to the US Department of the Treasury during the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

Hassett has also been an economic adviser to presidential candidates since 2000, when he became the chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain during that year's presidential primaries. He served as an economic adviser to the George W. Bush 2004 presidential campaign, a senior economic adviser to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign, and an economic adviser to the Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign.

Hassett is the author or editor of many books, among them "Rethinking Competitiveness" (2012), "Toward Fundamental Tax Reform" (2005), "Bubbleology: The New Science of Stock Market Winners and Losers" (2002), and "Inequality and Tax Policy" (2001). He is also a columnist for National Review and has written for Bloomberg.

Hassett frequently appears on Bloomberg radio and TV, CNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, NPR, and "PBS NewsHour," among others. He is also often quoted by, and his opinion pieces have been published in, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Hassett has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in economics from Swarthmore College.
Phone: 202-862-7157
Email: khassett@aei.org
Assistant Info
Name: Emma Bennett
Phone: 202-862-5862
Email: emma.bennett@aei.org