Laurence Kotlikoff

Does it pay to work? This is a tough question to answer because of the complexity of the tax code and a plethora of dynamic linkages involved.

Using the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances and an elaborate life-cycle model, we quantify the potential financial impact of each individual's death on his or her survivors.

Thanks to recent changes in the tax law, people can contribute more to their tax-deductible and non-tax-deductible savings plans, including 401(k) and Roth IRAs. But should they?

Using data on older workers from the 1992 Health and Retirement Survey, along with an elaborate life-cycle planning model, the authors quantify the effect of each individual's death on the financial status of his or her survivors.

This paper uses ESPlanner, a detailed, life-cycle personal financial planning model, to study the lifetime tax advantage gained by stylized young couples when they participate in a 401(k) plan.

This paper analyzes questions related to defined contribution (DC) plans. For what types of households are statutory contribution limits likely to bind?

How much should Americans save prior to retirement? Given Social Security’s shaky financial condition, this is a critical question for baby boomers.

Auerbach et al. (1995), documents the dramatic postwar increase in the annuitization of the resources of America’s elderly.

This study examines life insurance adequacy among married American couples approaching retirement based on the 1992 Health and Retirement Survey with matched Social Security earnings histories.

The authors consider Social Security’s treatment of postwar Americans under alternative tax increases and benefit cuts that would help bring the system’s finances into present-value balance.

Answering the question of how much wealth inequality arises from inheritance inequality requires data that are unavailable and potentially uncollectable.

This paper uses a new large-scale dynamic simulation model to compare the equity, efficiency, and macroeconomic effects of five alternatives to the current U.S. federal income tax.

The rate of saving in the United States has declined dramatically in recent decades.

An analysis of the changes since 1960 in the share of Americans’ resources that are annuitized, which has declined slightly for younger Americans but has risen dramatically for the elderly.

The authors show that given current policy, today’s and tomorrow’s children could end up paying as much as 70 percent of their lifetime income to the government, whereas the current elderly will pay only about 25 percent on average.

This paper uses generational accounting to assess Norway’s fiscal position. Generational accounting measures the remaining lifetime net tax burdens facing different living generations.

This paper considers the implications of the current course of Italian fiscal policy for existing and future generations of Italians.

Our previous study (Auerbach, Gokhale, and Kotlikoff [1991]) introduced the concept of generational accounting, a method of determining how the burden of fiscal policy falls on different generations.

In hiring new workers, risk-neutral employers equate the present expected value of each worker’s compensation to the present expected value of his/her productivity.

An application of generational accounting to fiscal policies that feature intergenerational redistribution.

This paper presents a set of generational accounts that can be used to assess the fiscal burden that current generations are placing on future generations.

Retirees are one of the wealthiest segments of the U.S. population, and today’s retirees have more wealth than any previous generation’s.

Fundamental tax reform remains a hot topic, for reasons that should come as no surprise. The current U.S. tax structure is complex, distortionary, and replete with tax preferences.

Despite recent attempts to impose discipline on the federal budget-making process, federal budget deficits have continued to escalate over the past several years.