This grant supports an ongoing NBER project, the International Social Security (ISS) project, led by Courtney Coile and Axel Bцrsch-Supan, that will examine a variety of retirement and social safety net reforms that have been implemented in other countries, including Canada, Japan, and nine European countries. Teams of investigators from 12 countries (11 mentioned above and the U.S) will examine the precise financial incentives associated with those reforms and the effects of the changed financial incentives on work, retirement, and claiming behavior at older ages. The studies will use a common template, which will enable meaningful, if complicated, comparisons across countries. While the institutional and cultural contexts differ across countries to various degrees, the commonality of demographic pressures and the limited scope of options for restoring financial sustainability to retirement programs make the experiences of other countries directly relevant to Social Security reform discussions in the United States.