Recently, Ivanov and Volovich (hep-th/9912242) claimed that the perturbation of hμν with nonvanishing transverse components h5μ is not localized on the brane because hμν depends on the fifth coordinate z linearly. Consequently, it may indicate that the effective theory is unstable. However, we point out that such linear dependence on z can be gauged away. Hence the solution does not belong to t...

This paper studies the role of social security in providing annuity insurance. I calculate the welfare cost of adverse selection in the annuity market using a life cycle model in which individuals have private information about their mortality. I calibrate the model to the current U.S. social security replacement ratio, fraction of annuitized wealth and mortality heterogeneity in the Health and...

We analyze the effect of exposure to international trade on earnings and employment of U.S. workers from 1992 through 2007 by exploiting industry shocks to import competition stemming from China’s spectacular rise as a manufacturing exporter paired with longitudinal data on individual earnings by employer spanning close to two decades. Individuals who in 1991 worked in manufacturing industries ...

Public social security systems may provide diversification of risks to individuals’ life-time income. Capturing that a pay-as-you-go program (paygo) may be considered as a “quasiasset”, we study the optimal size of the social security program as well as the optimal split between a funded part and a paygo part by means of a theoretical portfolio choice approach. A low-yielding paygo system can b...

I compare the welfare implications of implementing Bismarckian and Beveridgean social security systems. In an overlapping generations environment with intragenerational homogeneity, agents can be better off with a system with universal benefits than with a comparable system with earningsdependent benefits because the latter generates a stronger decrease in net wages. Once I allow for intragener...

Effects of Intergenerational Transfers on Elderly Coresidence with Adult Children: Evidence from Rural India The present paper argues that intergenerational transfers between elderly parents and adult children are important determinants of any coresidency arrangement though generally overlooked in the existing literature. In this respect the paper distinguishes between exchange of both financia...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the reform of family benefits and the growth of meanstesting in Hungary. From 1996, many family benefits were means-tested for the first time. A new microsimulation model for Hungary, running on recent survey microdata, is used to simulate the impact of the 1996 reforms on government expenditures, the distribution of incomes, the targeting of benefits and...

We construct a dynamic general equilibrium model to analyze the effects of large energy subsidies in a small open economy. The model pays special attention to domestic energy production and consumption, trade in energy at world market prices, as well as private and public sector production including the provision of public infrastructure. The model is calibrated to data from Egypt and then used...