Economics: The Open-Access, Open Assessment E-Journal http://www.economics-ejournal.org en Neil Bruce Stephen J. Turnovsky Uncertain Retirement and the Effects of Social Insurance on Savings, Wealth, and Welfare 2007-05-14 We construct a Blanchard-style overlapping generations model consisting of long-lived individuals who have uninsurable idiosyncratic risk resulting from uncertain retirement periods and medical costs in retirement. Without social insurance, such individuals must save for these eventualities. We examine the impact of pay-as-you-go social insurance policies (public pensions and medicare coverage) on individual and aggregate consumption, saving, and wealth levels as well as wealth distribution. We also derive expressions for optimal (Pareto improving) social insurance policies. http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/journalarticles/2007-2 JEL D91 JEL E10 JEL J20