AISI D2, an alloy tool steel, has been widely used as a cold-work die steel because of its excellent wear resistance, toughness, and machinability. However, when it is mold or under high load, hardness resistance are required to improve service life. This study aimed apply ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification (UNSM), local hardening technology, the D2 steel. To maximize improvement effec...

We extend a standard overlapping-generations general-equilibrium model with idiosyncratic working ability shocks to design the optimal social security pension system. There are two main features in our approach. First, we keep track of individual social security wealth explicitly so that we can evaluate a wide range of policies, including “private accounts,” seamlessly. Second, we express our s...

Aging populations are leading countries worldwide to social security reforms. Many countries are moving from pay-as-you-go to personal retirement account (PRA) systems because of their financial sustainability and positive impact on private savings. PRA systems boost private savings at a macro level by converting a government liability into financial wealth managed by private fund managers. How...

The Changing of the Guards: Can Physicians Contain Social Insurance Costs? Based on administrative data from Norway, we examine the extent to which family doctors influence their clients’ propensity to claim sick pay and disability benefits. The analysis is based on exogenous shifts of family doctors occurring when physicians quit, retire, or for other reasons sell their patient lists to other ...

We discuss the Randall-Sundrum (RS) gauge in the brane-world. We begin with the de Donder gauge (transverse-tracefree) in five dimensions for comparison. One finds that h55 = 0 and h5μ has a tachyonic mass. Hence we have to set h5μ = 0. This leads to the RS gauge. It appears that the RS gauge is so restrictive for the five massless states, whereas it is unique for describing the massive states....

This paper explores the general-equilibrium impact of social security portfolio diversiŽ cation into private securities, either through the trust fund or private accounts. The analysis depends critically on heterogeneities in saving, production, assets, and taxes. Limited diversiŽcation weakly increases interest rates, reduces the expected return on short-term investment (and the equity premium...

A Constitutional Theory of the Family The paper re-examines the idea that a family can be viewed as a community governed by a self-enforcing constitution, and extends existing results in two directions. First, it identifies circumstances in which a constitution is renegotiation-proof. Second, it introduces parental altruism. The behavioural and policy implications are illustrated by showing the...

This paper presents results from an impact analysis of the Ticket to Work (TTW) program, as implemented by the Social Security Administration (SSA) from 2002 through 2007. For new, young Social Security Disability beneficiaries, we use exogenous variation in the month of Ticket mailing to rigorously estimate impacts of TTW on beneficiary outcomes over a 48-month period following the start of Ti...

Health Status, Disability and Retirement Incentives in Belgium Many Belgian retire well before the statutory retirement age. Numerous exit routes from the labor force can be identified: old-age pensions, conventional early retirement, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance are the most prominent ones. We analyze the retirement decision of Belgian workers adopting an option value frame...

This report describes the organisation of the Belgian long-term care system. It can be characterised as a mixed system, with extensive public care provision and the substantial support of informal care provided mainly within the family. While the current volume and quality of services appears to be adequate, the future increase in the number of dependent elderly persons over the next two decade...