Description: We develop a model based on causal mortality in order to better understand inequalities in life expectancy across socioeconomic circumstances.

Description: In the face of profound, worldwide changes in demographic, family, and lifestyle patterns, this paper introduces a dynamic social security system deemed most suitable for accommodating these changes.

Description: Paper examines some of the underlying issues associated with public pension plan benefits and financing. It reviews concerns related to intergenerational equity and problems in maintaining the funded status of public DB retirement plans.

Description: This paper investigates the effect of select birth cohorts on pricing of mortality-based securities, such as survivor bonds, life annuities in general, or portfolios of life annuities.

Description: This paper develops a set of retirement decision propositions, which hypothesize that the heuristic of Anchoring and the resulting cognitive biases described by Prospect Theory will influence the chosen retirement age. .

Description: Chapter 2 reviews previous research in the area of health risk assessment. From A Comparative Analysis of Methods of Health Risk Assessment, M-HB96-1.

Description: This paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of a defined benefit plan option for phased retirees.

Description: This paper presents recent trends in obesity prevalence in significant population segments, including overall effects by age, gender and certain racial and ethnic groups, and discusses the ways in which obesity can influence mortality in each of these segments. It provides a synthesis of reported mortality experience relating to these behaviors by risk factors and diseases that will affect any mortality projection.

Description: Chapter 3 describes the methods and data being used in the evaluation predictive accuracy. From A Comparative Analysis of Methods of Health Risk Assessment, M-HB96-1.

Description: The percentage of the population who are obese has grown dramatically worldwide over the last several decades, although stabilizing recently in the United States. Studies have found the effects on mortality to be inconsistent and controversial because of methodological differences and the complexity of the relationship between obesity and mortality. This paper discusses this relationship and sheds light on the likely effects of this epidemic. Issues associated with the so-called obesity-mortality paradox, where mortality experience is lower for those individuals who are overweight and in some who are obese compared with the mortality of those in the normal weight category, are examined. Although certain recently reported studies of the relationship between mortality and obesity indicate that obesity is related to a reduced percent of additional mortality, this may in part be due to the shorter average time that those currently obese have been exposed to their condition. Nevertheless, the amount of health care costs and rates of disability associated with being obese are significant, contributing to the increase in overall health care costs as they become more numerous and age. Although obesity is being addressed with a great deal of activity and publicity, they will continue to prove challenging for individuals and society to manage and overcome.