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Kent Smetters

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Boettner Associate Professor; Associate Professor of Insurance and Risk Management

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Research Publications Biography

Research Areas

Social insurance programs; incomplete markets; annuity markets; tax reform; pricing government guarantees

Representative Publications

(with S. Nishiyama)
“Does Privatizing Social Security Increase Efficiency?” Quarterly Journal of Economics (Forthcoming).

(with J. Walliser and L. Kotlikoff)
“Finding a Way Out of America’s Demographic Dilemma.” Journal of Monetary Economics (Forthcoming).

“Sharing Financial Risks across Non-Trading Generations: A Decentralized Alternative to Government Ownership of Private Equities” Journal of Monetary Economics 53(7),(2006).

(with S. Nishiyama)
“Consumption Taxes, Risk Sharing and Economic Efficiency.” Journal of Political Economy 113(5): 1088 – 1115 (October 2005).

(with J. Walliser)
"Opting Out of Social Security." Journal of Public Economics 88: 1295-1306(2004).

“The Dynamic Properties of the Neoclassical Growth Model with CES Production.” Review of Economic Dynamics 6,3: 697-707 (2003).

(with D. Altig, A. Auerbach, L. Kotlikoff, and J. Walliser)
"Simulating Fundamental Tax Reform in the U.S." American Economic Review 91.3: 574-595 (June, 2001).

(with L. Kotlikoff and J. Walliser)
"Privatizing Social Security in the U.S. ­— Comparing the Options." Review of Economic Dynamics 2: 532-574 (1999).

"Ricardian Equivalence: Long-Run Leviathan." Journal of Public Economics 73: 395-421 (1999).

Education

PhD, Harvard University, 1995; MA, Harvard University, 1992; BS, Ohio State University, 1990

Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Awards

Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 1990-93; TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson, Certificate of Excellence, 2002; Robert C. Witt Award for the best paper published in the Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2000

Academic Positions Held

Wharton: 1998-present. Visiting appointment: Stanford University

Other Positions

Economist, Congressional Budget Office, 1995-98; Faculty Research Fellow, Aging Program, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2000-present; Research Associate, Public Economics, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2001-present; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Economic Policy, US Treasury: 2001-2002; Member, Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Dynamic Scoring, U.S. Congress (JCT), 2002-present; Member, National Academy of Social Insurance, 2002-present; Research Associate, Michigan Retirement Research Center, 2000-present