Social Security Advisory Board Announces 2011 Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods

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For those of us in the wonkish set, this is important and interesting stuff. The 'tech panel' is appointed every four years to examine how the Social Security actuaries and Trustees make their projections for the system's finances. The Advisory Board appointed a good group of folks this year, so I'm hopeful they can make a solid contribution.

 

Social Security Advisory Board Announces 2011 Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods

The Social Security Advisory Board, is pleased to announce that the Board has appointed an expert panel of economists, demographers and actuaries to review the assumptions and methods used by the Trustees of the Social Security Trust Funds in their annual reports on the long-term finances of the Social Security system. The Board previously convened technical panels in 1999, 2003 and 2007. Copies of past reports are available on publications page of the SSAB website.

The 2011 Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods will be chaired by Brigitte Madrian, the Aetna Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management at John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  The other distinguished members of the panel include: Janet Barr, associate actuary at Milliman USA, and chair of the American Academy of Actuaries' Social Insurance Committee; John Bongaarts, Vice-president and Distinguished Scholar at the  Population Council; Mark Duggan, Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland; Melissa Favreault, Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute; Timothy Marnell, consulting actuary and formerly a Senior Actuary at Towers Perrin; S. Philip Morgan, Professor of Sociology and Schaeffer Professor of International Studies at Duke University; John Sabelhaus, Senior Economist at the Investment Company Institute and adjunct in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland; Andrew Samwick, Irving Professor of Economics and the Director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College; and Karen Woodrow-Lafield,  Research Professor and Faculty Associate in the Maryland Population Research Center at the University of Maryland.  The Technical Panel will meet in Washington D.C. from October 2010 to June of 2011 and make its final report shortly thereafter.

The Social Security Advisory Board believes the future of Social Security system is one of the most important issues that policymakers will have to confront in the coming years. It is critical, therefore, that the Nation have the best advice available regarding the projection of the factors that will affect the system's financing over the long-term. The Board is confident the distinguished members of the 2011 panel, like those before them, will make major contributions to the work of the Board of Trustees and the Social Security actuaries. 

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The panel's first public meeting will be held on October 1, 2010 from 10:00am to 5:30pm at the Social Security Advisory Board offices at 400 Virginia Ave S.W., Suite 625, Washington, DC.

The agenda for the October 1 meeting can be found here. Because space is limited, those wishing to attend should contact Joel Feinleib on the Social Security Advisory Board staff: joel.feinleib@ssab.gov or 202-475-7700

Check the SSAB website for the date of future meetings. Meeting agendas will be available approximately one week before the meeting date. The panel is tentatively scheduled to meet on the following dates: November 5-6, 2010; December 13-14, 2010; January 28-29, 2011; February 25-26, 2011; April 8-9, 2011; May 6-7, 2011; June 3-4, 2011