Section Assignment: Social Security

David Agrawal

Due Monday, 3/6/06 at 4:10 PM

Your task is to write a single coherent essay that covers the scope of the three following topics listed below the required articles. Your paper should be between one and two typewritten pages (double-space, 1 inch margins, 12 point Times New Roman). Do not consult with others in the class.

Please remember all the academic rules of writing apply. If you need to include citations, this does not count toward your page allocation. Good arguments and good prose are both a requirement. Thus, if you need some tips on economic writing, please see the following guidelines on style: Langlois: Notes on Writing. The topics ask you to cover a lot of material and thus expressing yourself clearly and concisely is a requirement.

In writing this article, use the following articles (note I have added an additional one):

Mankiw: Social Security Reform

Krugman: Confusions about Social Security

Lazear: The Virtues of Personal Accounts for Social Security

DeLong: Statement on Social Security Reform (added; read only his testimony, not the comments).

After reading the above articles, consider all three of the following topics in your paper:

Take two of the authors and analyze how their posture and the economic lenses through which they view the world are different. Consider how they apply economic theory, not a summary of their opinions. [You may wish to consider what assumptions they make about the world or about people and if the assumptions are justified.]

As an economist, in your interpretation, is (are) there a problem(s) facing Social Security? Why or why not? If so, what is the problem(s) as you view it? If there is not a problem, why do you think others see a problem? [You may wish to consider what assumptions you might be making that could lead you to a different definition of the problem(s).]

What is the best way to solve the problem (as you defined it) facing Social Security? Justify using economics. [Be sure to discuss your own solution and not simply the solutions of the articles.] If you do not think there is a problem, how can the existing Social Security system be improved to meet its existing goals?

Consider this assignment in the following manner (modified from Professor Michael Dintenfass). This short written assignment calls upon you to make the best sense you can of several sources of economic thought. There is no single answer to the question this assignment poses that readers of good will would unanimously agree were unambiguously and incontrovertibly correct. Therefore, you ought not to regard this paper as a test of your capacity to divine the one truly right judgment. You should think of it instead as an education in the arts of interpreting the economic artifacts by which we model the world. This is thoroughly fallible work, and you will do best at it if you regard the exercise as an opportunity to pair imagination with analytical thought and to practice the real-world skills of effective verbal communication. Be assured that I will grade these essays in terms of the justice they do the original documents under examination, the boldness of mind they exhibit in the interpretation of them, and the clarity with which they speak their piece.

Your essays will form the basis and the starting point of our discussion on Monday. Be sure to come to class prepared to discuss it. You may wish to bring a copy for yourself as reference during the discussion.