TY  - JOUR
AU  - Feldstein,Martin
TI  - Social Security and Saving: New Time Series Evidence
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5054
PY  - 1995
Y2  - March 1995
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5054
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5054.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Martin S. Feldstein
President Emeritus
NBER
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02138-5398
Tel: 617/868-3905
Fax: 617/868-7194
E-Mail: msfeldst@nber.org
AB  - This paper reexamines the results of my 1974 paper on Social Security and saving with the help of an additional twenty-one years of data.  The estimates presented here reconfirm that each dollar of Social Security wealth (SSW) reduces private saving by between two and three cents.  The parameter estimates for the postwar period and for the entire sample since 1930 are very similar.  The correction of the error in the original SSW series between 1958 and 1971 therefore does not significantly affect the original results.  The estimated effect of SSW is robust with respect to the addition of a variety of variables that have been suggested in previous critiques of the original study.  In the aggregate, the parameter values imply that the Social Security program currently reduces overall private saving by nearly 60 percent.
ER  -