Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Historical Trends in Mortality and Health, Employment, and Disability Insurance Participation and Reforms.

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Historical Trends in Mortality and Health, Employment, and Disability Insurance Participation and Reforms, edited by David A. Wise, will be available from the University of Chicago Press in early autumn of 2012.

In nearly every industrialized country, large aging populations and increased life expectancy have placed enormous pressure on social security programs. Until recently, that pressure was compounded by a trend toward retirement at an earlier age. With a larger fraction of the population receiving benefits, social security programs in many countries may have to be reformed to remain financially viable through the coming decades.

This NBER Conference Report offers a cross-country analysis, drawing on measures of health that are comparable, and exploring, for example, the extent to which differences in the labor force are determined by disability insurance programs. It...